Class 
Book 



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1 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY, 

AND 

ANCIENT TRADITIONAL HISTORY 

OF THE 

NEW ZEALAND RACE, 

AS FURNISHED BY THEIR PRIESTS AND CHIEFS. 



BY SIR GEORGE GREY, 

LATE GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF OF NE& ZEALAND. 




LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
1855. 



LONDON*. PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, 
ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET. 



PREFACE. 



Towards the close of the year 1845 I was 
suddenly and unexpectedly required by the British 
Government to administer the affairs of New Zea- 
land, and shortly afterwards received the appoint- 
ment of Governor-in-Chief of those Islands. 

When I arrived in them, I found Her Majesty's 
native subjects engaged in hostilities with the 
Queen s troops, against whom they had up to that 
time contended with considerable success ; so much 
discontent also prevailed generally amongst the 
native population, that where disturbances had not 
yet taken place, there was too much reason to 
apprehend they would soon break out, as they 
shortly afterwards did, in several parts of the 
Islands. 

I soon perceived that I could neither successfully 
govern, nor hope to conciliate, a numerous and tur- 
bulent people, with whose language, manners, cus- 
toms, religion, and modes of thought I was quite 
unacquainted. In order to redress their grievances, 



iv 



PEEFACE. 



and apply remedies, which would neither wound 
their feelings, nor militate against their prejudices, 
it was necessary that I should be able thoroughly 
to understand their complaints ; and to win their 
confidence and regard, it was also requisite that 
I should be able at all times, and in all places, 
patiently to listen to the tales of their wrongs or 
sufferings, and, even if I could not assist them, to 
give them a kind reply, couched in such terms as 
should leave no doubt on their minds that I 
clearly understood and felt for them, and was 
really well disposed towards them. 

Although furnished with some very able inter- 
preters, who gave me assistance of the most friendly 
nature, I soon found that even with their aid I 
could still only very imperfectly perform my duties. 
I could not at all times and in all places have an 
interpreter by my side ; and thence often when way- 
laid by some suitor, who had, perhaps, travelled 
two or three hundred miles to lay before me the 
tale of his or her grievances, I was compelled to 
pass on without listening, and to witness with pain 
an expression of sorrow and keenly disappointed 
hope cloud over features which the moment before 
were bright with gladness, that the opportunity so 
anxiously looked for had at length been secured. 

Again, I found that any tale of sorrow or suffer- 
ing, passing through the medium of an interpreter, 



PREFACE. V 

fell much more coldly on my ear, than what it 
would have done had the person interested ad- 
dressed the tale direct to myself; and in like 
manner an answer delivered through the interven- 
tion of a third person, appeared to leave a very 
different impression upon the suitor to what it 
would have had coming direct from the lips of the 
Governor of the country. Moreover, this mode 
of communication through a third person was so 
cumbrous and slow, that, in order to compensate 
for the loss of time thus occasioned, it became 
necessary for the interpreters to compress the sub- 
stance of the representations made to me, as also 
of my own replies, into the fewest words possible ; 
and as this had in each instance to be done hur- 
riedly, and at the moment, there was reason to fear 
that much that was material to enable me fully to 
understand the question brought before me, or the 
suitor to comprehend my reply, might be uninten- 
tionally omitted. Lastly, I had on several occasions 
reasons to believe that a native hesitated to state 
facts, or to express feelings and wishes, to an inter- 
preter, which he would most gladly have done to the 
Governor, could he have addressed him direct. 

These reasons, and others of equal force, made me 
feel it to be my duty to make myself acquainted, 
with the least possible delay, with the language of 
the New Zealanders, as also with their manners, 

a 2 



vi 



PREFACE. 



customs, and prejudices. But I soon found that 
this was a far more difficult matter than I had at 
first supposed. The language of the New Zea- 
landers is a very difficult one to understand tho- 
roughly : there was then no dictionary of it pub- 
lished (unless a vocabulary can be so called) ; there 
were no books published in the language, which 
would enable me to study its construction ; it 
varied altogether in form from any of the ancient 
or modern languages which I knew ; and my 
thoughts and time were so occupied with the 
cares of the government of a country then pressed 
upon by many difficulties, and with a formidable 
rebellion raging in it, that I could find but very few 
hours to devote to the acquisition of an unwritten 
and difficult language. I, however, did my best, 
and cheerfully devoted all my spare moments to a 
task, the accomplishment of which was necessary 
to enable me to perform properly every duty to 
my country and to the people I was appointed to 
govern. 

Soon, however, a new and quite unexpected dif- 
ficulty presented itself. On the side of the rebel 
party were engaged, either openly or covertly, some 
of the oldest, least civilised, and most influential 
chiefs in the Islands. With them I had either 
personally, or by written communications, to discuss 
questions which involved peace or war, and on 



PREFACE. 



VU 



which the whole future of the Mauds and of the 
native race depended, so that it was in the highest 
degree essential that I should fully and entirely 
comprehend their thoughts and intentions, and that 
they should not in any way misunderstand the 
nature of the engagements into which I entered 
with them. 

To my surprise, however, I found that these 
chiefs, either in their speeches to me, or in their 
letters, frequently quoted, in explanation of their 
views and intentions, fragments of ancient poems 
or proverbs, or made allusions which rested on 
an ancient system of mythology ; and although it 
was clear that the most important parts of their 
communications were embodied in these figurative 
forms, the interpreters were quite at fault, they 
could then rarely (if ever) translate the poems or 
explain the allusions, and there was no publication 
in existence which threw any light upon these 
subjects, or which gave the meaning of the great 
mass of the words which the natives upon such 
occasions made use of ; so that I was compelled to 
content myself with a short general statement of 
what some other native believed that the writer of 
the letter intended to convey as his meaning by the 
fragment of the poem he had quoted, or by the 
allusions he had made. I should add, that even the 
great majority of the young Christian natives were 



viii 



PREFACE. 



quite as much at fault on these subjects as were 
the European interpreters. 

Clearly, however, I could not, as Governor of the 
country, permit so close a veil to remain drawn 
between myself and the aged and influential chiefs, 
whom it was my duty to attach to British interests 
and to the British race, whose regard and confi- 
dence, as also that of their tribes, it was my desire 
to secure, and with whom it was necessary that I 
should hold the most unrestricted intercourse. Only 
one thing could, under such circumstances, be done, 
and that was to acquaint myself with the ancient 
language of the country, to collect its traditional 
poems and legends, to induce their priests to im- 
part to me their mythology, and to study their 
proverbs. For more than eight years I devoted a 
great part of my available time to these pursuits. In- 
deed I worked at tins duty in my spare moments 
in every part of the country I traversed, and during 
my many voyages from portion to portion of the 
Islands. I was also always accompanied by natives, 
and still at every possible interval pursued my in- 
quiries into these subjects. Once, when I had with 
great pains amassed a large mass of materials to aid 
me in my studies, the Government House was de- 
stroyed by fire, and with it were burnt the mate- 
rials I had so collected, and thus I was left to 
commence again my difficult and wearying task. 



PEEFACE. 



ix 



The ultimate result, however, was, that I ac- 
quired a great amount of information on these 
subjects, and collected a large mass of materials, 
which was, however, from the manner in which 
they were acquired, in a very scattered state — for 
different portions of the same poem or legend were 
often collected from different natives, in very dis- 
tant parts of the country ; long intervals of time, 
also, frequently elapsed after I had obtained one 
part of a poem or legend, before I could find a 
native accurately acquainted with another portion 
of it; consequently the fragments thus obtained 
were scattered through different note-books, and, 
before they could be given to the public, required 
to be carefully arranged and re-written, and, what 
was still more difficult (whether viewed in refer- 
ence to the real difficulty of fairly translating the 
ancient language in which they were composed, or 
my many public duties), it was necessary that they 
should be translated. 

Having, however, with much toil acquired in- 
formation which I found so useful to myself, I 
felt unwilling that the result of my labours should 
be lost to those whose duty it may be hereafter 
to deal with the natives of New Zealand ; and I 
therefore undertook a new task, winch I have 
often, very often, been sorely tempted to abandon ; 
but the same sense of duty which made me origi- 



X 



PREFACE. 



nally enter upon the study of the native language 
has enabled me to persevere up to the present period, 
when I have already published one large volume 
in the native language, containing a very extensive 
collection of the ancient traditional poems, religious 
chants and songs of the Maori race, and I now 
present to the European reader a translation of the 
principal portions of their ancient mythology, and 
of some of their most interesting legends. 

Another reason that has made me anxious to 
impart to the public the most material portions of 
the information I have thus attained is, that, pro- 
bably, to no other person but myself would many 
of their ancient rythmical prayers and traditions 
have been imparted by their priests ; and it is less 
likely that any one could now acquire them, as 
I regret to say that most of their old chiefs, and 
even some of the middle-aged ones who aided me 
in my researches, have already passed to the tomb. 

With regard to the style of the translation a 
few words are required : I fear in point of care 
and language it will not satisfy the critical reader ; 
but I can truly say that I have had no leisure care- 
fully to revise it ; the translation is also faith- 
ful, and it is almost impossible closely and faith- 
fully to translate a very difficult language, without 
almost insensibly falling somewhat into the idiom 
and form of construction of that language, which, 



PREFACE. 



xi 



perhaps, from its unusualness, may prove unplea- 
sant to the European ear and mind, and this must 
be essentially the case in a work like the present, 
no considerable continuous portion of the original 
whereof was derived from one person, but which 
is compiled from the written or orally delivered 
narratives of many, each differing from the others 
in style, and some even materially from the rest 
in dialect. 

I have said that the translation is close and 
faithful : it is so to the full extent of my powers, and 
from the little time I have had at my disposal. 
I have done no more than add in some places 
such few explanatory words as were necessary 
to enable a person unacquainted with the produc- 
tions, customs, or religion of the country, to under- 
stand what the narrator meant. For the first time, 
I believe, a European reader will find it in his 
power to place himself in the position of one who 
listens to a heathen and savage high-priest, ex- 
plaining to him, in his own words, and in his own 
energetic manner, the traditions in which he ear- 
nestly believes, and unfolding the religious opinions 
upon which the faith and hopes of his race rest. 

That their traditions are puerile, is true ; that the 
religious faith of the races who trust in them is 
absurd, is a melancholy fact ; but all my expe- 
rience leads me to believe that the Saxon, Celtic, 



xii 



PREFACE. 



and Scandinavian systems of mythology, could 
we have become intimately acquainted with them, 
would he found in no respects to surpass that one 
which the European reader may now thoroughly 
understand. I believe that the ignorance which 
has prevailed regarding the mythological systems 
of barbarous or semi-barbarous races has too gene- 
rally led to their being considered far grander and 
more reasonable than they really were. 

But the puerility of these traditions and bar- 
barous mythological systems by no means dimi- 
nishes their importance as regards their influence 
upon the human race. Those contained in the present 
volumes have, with slight modifications, prevailed 
perhaps considerably more than two thousand years 
throughout the great mass of the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean ; and, indeed, the religious system of 
ancient Mexico was, probably, to some extent con- 
nected with them. They have been believed in 
and obeyed by many millions of the human race ; 
and it is still more melancholy to reflect that they 
were based upon a system of human sacrifices to 
the gods ; so that if we allow them to have existed 
for two thousand years, and that, in accordance with 
the rites which are based upon them, at least two 
thousand human victims were annually sacrificed 
throughout the whole extent of the numerous 
islands in which they prevailed (both of which sup- 



PREFACE. xiii 

positions are probably much within the truth), then 
at least four millions of human beings have been 
offered in sacrifice to false gods ; and to this number 
we should have to acid a frightful list of children 
murdered under the system of infanticide, which 
the same traditions encouraged, as also a very large 
number of persons destroyed for having been be- 
lieved guilty of the crime of sorcery or witch- 
craft. 

It must further be borne in mind, that the native 
races, who believed in these traditions or supersti- 
tions, are in no way deficient in intellect, and in no 
respect incapable of receiving the truths of Chris- 
tianity ; on the contrary, they readily embrace its 
doctrines and submit to its rules ; in our schools 
they stand a fair comparison with Europeans, and, 
when instructed in Christian truths, blush at their 
own former ignorance and superstitions, and look 
back with shame and loathing upon their previous 
state of wickedness and credulity ; and yet for a 
great part of their lives have they, and, for thou- 
sands of years before they were born, have their 
forefathers, implicitly submitted themselves to those 
very superstitions, and followed those cruel and 
barbarous rites. 
. 

b 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

The Children op Heaven and Earth . . . . 1 

The Legend of Macji 16 

The Legend of Tawiiaki . . . . . .59 

Rupe's Ascent into Heaven . . . . .81 

Kae's Theft of the Whale 90 

The Murder of Tuwhakararo and its Revenge . .99 
The Adventures of Rata — the Enchanted Tree . . 108 
The Quarrels at Hawaiki . . . . . . .123 

The Discovery of New Zealand 132 

Preparations to Emigrate 134 

The Voyage to New Zealand * 136 

The Curse of Manaia . . . . . . .162 

Hatupatu and his Brothers 182 
The Emigration of Turi to New Zealand . . . 202 
The Emigration of Manaia 221 

HlNE-MOA, THE MAIDEN OF RoTORUA .... 233 

The Story of Maru-tuahu, and that of Kahureremoa 246 

The Two Sorcerers 273 

The Magical Wooden Head 279 

Kahukura and the Fairies ...... 287 

Te Kanawa's Adventure with the Fairies . . . 292 
The Loves of Takarangi and Rau-Mahora . . .296 
The Stratagem of Te Ponga's Elopement . . . 301 



Appendix : On the Native Songs of New Zealand 



313 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Engraved Frontispiece and Title-Page. 

The New Zealand Swing Page 72 

Native House 98 

War Dance .102 

Launching a Canoe . . . , . . .135 

Priestess performing Incantations .... 145 

Chief Lying in State 151 

New Zealand Tradition 171 

New Zealand Chief 191 

Weeping over Head of deceased Relative . . . 199 

Tree Fern . . .223 

New Zealand Vegetation 267 

Kohinemutu Rotorna 279 

New Zealand Pa 297 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND 
EARTH. 

(KO NGA TAMA A EANGI — TEADITION EELATING TO THE OEIGIN OP 
THE HUMAN EACE.) 

Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors ; they 
sprang from the vast heaven that exists above us, 
and from the earth which lies beneath us. Accord- 
ing to the traditions of our race, Rangi and Papa, 
or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which, 
in the beginning, all things originated. Darkness 
then rested upon the heaven and upon the earth, 
and they still both clave together, for they had not 
yet been rent apart ; and the children they had 
begotten were ever thinking amongst themselves 
what might be the difference between darkness 
and light ; they knew that beings had multiplied 
and increased, and yet light had never broken 
upon them, but it ever continued dark. Hence 
these sayings are found in our ancient religious 
services : " There was darkness from the first divi- 

B 



2 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



sion of time, unto the tenth, to the hundredth, to 
the thousandth/' that is, for a vast space of time ; 
and these divisions of times were considered as 
beings, and were each termed a Po ; and on their 
account there was as yet no world with its bright 
light, but darkness only for the beings which 
existed. 

At last the beings who had been begotten by 
Heaven and Earth, worn out by the continued 
darkness, consulted amongst themselves, saying, 
" Let us now determine what we should do with 
Rangi and Papa, whether it would be better to 
slay them or to rend them apart. Then spoke Tu- 
matauenga, the fiercest of the children of Heaven 
and Earth, " It is well, let us slay them." 

Then spake Tane-mahuta, the father of forests 
and of all things that inhabit them, or that are 
constructed from trees, " Nay, not so. It is better 
to rend them apart, and to let the heaven stand 
far above us, and the earth lie under our feet. Let 
the sky become as a stranger to us, but the earth 
remain close to us as our nursing mother/' 

The brothers all consented to this proposal, with 
the exception of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of 
winds and storms, and he, fearing that his kingdom 
was about to be overthrown, grieved greatly at the 
thought of his parents being torn apart. Five of 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 3 

the brothers willingly consented to the separation 
of their parents, but one of them would not agree 
to it. 

Hence, also, these sayings of old are found in our 
prayers, " Darkness, darkness, light, light, the seek- 
ing, the searching, in chaos, in chaos ; " these sig- 
nified the way in which the offspring of heaven 
and earth sought for some mode of dealing with 
their parents, so that human beings might increase 
and live. 

So, also, these sayings of old time, "The multi- 
tude, the length/' signified the multitude of the 
thoughts of the children of Heaven and Earth, 
and the length of time they considered whether 
they should slay their parents, that human beings 
might be called into existence ; for it was in this 
manner that they talked and consulted amongst 
themselves. 

But at length their plans having been agreed 
on, lo, Rongo-ma-tane, the god and father of the 
cultivated food of man, rises up, that he may rend 
apart the heavens and the earth ; he struggles, but 
he rends them not apart. Lo, next, Tangaroa, the 
god and father of fish and reptiles, rises up, that 
he may rend apart the heavens and the earth ; he 
also struggles, but he rends them not apart. Lo, 
next, Haumia-tikitiki, the god and father of the 
food of man which springs without cultivation, 

B 2 



4 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY, 



rises up and struggles, but ineffectually. Lo, 
then, Tu-matauenga, the god and father of fierce 
human beings, rises up and struggles, but he, too, 
fails in his efforts. Then, at last, slowly uprises 
Tane-raahuta, the god and father of forests, of 
birds, and of insects, and he struggles with his 
parents ; in vain he strives to rend them apart 
with his hands and arms. Lo, he pauses ; his head 
is now firmly planted on his mother the earth, his 
feet he raises up and rests against his father the 
skies, he strains his back and limbs with mighty 
effort. Now are rent apart Rangi and Papa, and 
with cries and groans of wo they shriek aloud, 
" Wherefore slay you thus your parents ? Why 
commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay us, as to 
rend your parents apart?" But ,Tane-mahuta 
pauses not, he regards not their shrieks and cries ; 
far, far beneath him he presses down the earth ; far, 
far above him he thrusts up the sky. 

Hence these sayings of olden time, " It was the 
fierce thrusting of Tane which tore the heaven 
from the earth, so that they were rent apart, and 
darkness was made manifest, and so was the 
light." 

No sooner was heaven rent from earth than the 
multitude of human beings were discovered whom 
they had begotten, and who had hitherto lain con- 
cealed between the bodies of Rangi and Papa. 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 5 

Then, also, there arose in the breast of Tawhiri- 
ma-tea, the god and father of winds and storms, a 
fierce desire to wage war with his brothers, because 
they had rent apart their common parents. He 
from the first had refused to consent to his mother 
being torn from her lord and children ; it was his 
brothers alone that wished for this separation, and 
desired that Papa-tu-a-nuku, or the Earth alone, 
should be left as a parent for them. 

The god of hurricanes and storms dreads also 
that the world should become too fair and beauti- 
ful, so he rises, follows his father to the realms 
above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the 
boundless skies ; there he hides and clings, and 
nestling in this place of rest he consults long with 
his parent, and as the vast Heaven listens to the 
suggestions of Tawhiri-ma-tea, thoughts and plans 
are formed in his breast, and Tawhiri-ma-tea also 
understands what he should do. Then by himself 
and the vast Heaven were begotten his numerous 
brood, and they rapidly increased and grew. 
Tawhiri-ma-tea despatches one of them to the west- 
ward, and one to the southward, and one to the 
eastward, and one to the northward ; and he gives 
corresponding names to himself and to his progeny 
the mighty winds. 

He next sends forth fierce squalls, whirlwinds, 



6 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



dense clouds, massy clouds, dark clouds, gloomy 
thick clouds, fiery clouds, clouds which precede 
hurricanes, clouds of fiery black, clouds reflecting 
glowing red light, clouds wildly drifting from all 
quarters and wildly bursting, clouds of thunder 
storms, and clouds hurriedly flying. In the midst 
of these Tawhiri-ma-tea himself sweeps wildly on. 
Alas ! alas ! then rages the fierce hurricane ; and 
whilst Tane-mahuta and his gigantic forests still 
stand, unconscious and unsuspecting, the blast of 
the breath of the mouth of Tawhiri-ma-tea smites 
them, the gigantic trees are snapt off right in the 
middle ; alas ! alas ! they are rent to atoms, 
dashed to the earth, with boughs and branches 
torn and scattered, and lying on the earth, trees 
and branches all alike left for the insect, for the 
grub, and for loathsome rottenness. 

From the forests and their inhabitants Tawhiri- 
ma-tea next swoops down upon the seas, and lashes 
in his wrath the ocean. Ah ! ah ! waves steep as 
cliffs arise, whose summits are so lofty that to look 
from them would make the beholder giddy ; these 
soon eddy in whirlpools, and Tangaroa, the god of 
ocean, and father of all that dwell therein, flies 
affrighted through his seas ; but before he fled, his 
children consulted together how they might secure 
their safety, for Tangaroa had begotten Punga, and 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 7 

he had begotten two children, Ika-tere, the father 
of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi, or Tu-te-wanawana, the 
father of reptiles. 

When Tangaroa fled for safety to the ocean, then 
Tu-te-wehiwehi and Ika-tere, and their children, 
disputed together as to what they should do to 
escape from the storms, and Tu-te-wehiwehi and 
his party cried aloud, " Let us fly inland but 
Ika-tere and his party cried aloud, " Let us fly to 
the sea." Some would not obey one order, some 
would not obey the other, and they escaped in two 
parties : the party of Tu-te-wehiwehi, or the rep- 
tiles, hid themselves ashore ; the party of Punga 
rushed to the sea. This is what, in our ancient 
religious services, is called the separation of Ta- 
whiri-ma-tea. 

Hence these traditions have been handed down : 
— " Ika-tere, the father of things which inhabit 
water, cried aloud to Tu-te-wehiwehi, ' Ho, ho, let 
us all escape to the sea/ 

" But Tu-te*wehiwehi shouted in answer, ' Nay, 
nay, let us rather fly inland/ 

" Then Ika-tere warned him, saying, ' Fly in- 
land, then ; and the fate of you and your race will 
be, that when they catch you, before you are 
cooked, they will singe off your scales over a 
lighted wisp of dry fern/ 



8 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



" But Tu-te-wehiwehi answered him, saying, 
' Seek safety, then, in the sea ; and the future fate 
of your race will be, that when they serve out little 
baskets of cooked vegetable food to each person, 
you will be laid upon the top of the food to give a 
relish to it/ 

" Then without delay these two races of beings 
separated. The fish fled in confusion to the sea, 
the reptiles sought safety in the forests and 
scrubs/' 

Tangaroa, enraged at some of his children desert- 
ing him, and, being sheltered by the god of the 
forests on dry land, has ever since waged war 
on his brother Tane, who, in return, has waged 
war against him. 

Hence Tane supplies the offspring of his brother 
Tu-matauenga with canoes, with spears and with fish- 
hooks made from his trees, and with nets woven from 
his fibrous plants, that they may destroy the off- 
spring of Tangaroa; whilst Tangaroa, in return, swal- 
lows up the offspring of Tane, overwhelming canoes 
with the surges of his sea, swallowing up the lands, 
trees, and houses that are swept off by floods, and 
ever wastes away, with his lapping waves, the 
shores that confine him, that the giants of the forests 
may be washed down and swept out into his 
boundless ocean, that he may then swallow up 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 9 

the insects, the young birds, and the various ani- 
mals which inhabit them, — all which things are 
recorded in the prayers which were offered to these 
gods. 

Tawhiri-ma-tea next rushed on to attack his 
brothers Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tikitiki, the 
gods and progenitors of cultivated and uncultivated 
food ; but Papa, to save these for her other children, 
caught them up, and hid them in a place of safety ; 
and so well were these children of hers concealed 
by their mother Earth, that Tawhiri-ma-tea sought 
for them in vain. 

Tawhiri-ma-tea having thus vanquished all his 
other brothers, next rushed against Tu-mata- 
uenga, to try his strength against his ; he exerted 
all his force against him, but he could neither 
shake him or prevail against him. What did Tu- 
matauenga care for his brother's wrath? he was 
the only one of the whole party of brothers who 
had planned the destruction of their parents, and 
had shown himself brave and fierce in war ; his 
brothers had yielded at once before the tremendous 
assaults of Tawhiri-ma-tea and his progeny — Ta- 
ne-mahuta and his offspring had been broken and 
torn in pieces — Tangaroa and his children had 
fled to the depths of the ocean or the recesses of 
the shore — Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tikitiki 

B 3 



10 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



had been hidden from him in the earth — but Tu- 
matauenga, or man, still stood erect and unshaken 
upon the breast of his mother Earth ; and now at 
length the hearts of Heaven and of the god of 
storms became tranquil, and their passions were 
assuaged. 

Tu-matauenga, or fierce man, having thus suc- 
cessfully resisted his brother, the god of hurricanes 
and storms, next took thought how he could turn 
upon his brothers and slay them, because they had 
not assisted him or fought bravely when Tawhiri- 
ma-tea had attacked them to avenge the separa- 
tion of their parents, and because they had left him 
alone to show his prowess in the fight. As yet 
death had no power over man. It was not until 
the birth of the children of Taranga and of Makea- 
tu-tara, of Maui-taha, of Maui-roto, of Maui-pae, of 
Maui-waho, and of Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga, the 
demi-god who tried to drain Hine-nui-te-po, that 
death had power over men. If that goddess had 
not been deceived by Maui-tikitiki, men would not 
have died, but would in that case have lived for 
ever ; it was from his deceiving Hine-nui-te-po that 
death obtained power over mankind, and penetrated 
to every part of the earth. 

Tu-matauenga continued to reflect upon the 
cowardly manner in which his brothers had acted, 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EAETH. 1 1 

in leaving him to show his courage alone, and he 
first sought some means of injuring Tane-mahuta, 
because he had not come to aid him in his combat 
with Tawhiri-ma-tea, and partly because he was 
aware that Tane had had a numerous progeny, who 
were rapidly increasing, and might at last prove 
hostile to him, and injure him, so he began to 
collect leaves of the whanake tree, and twisted 
them into nooses, and when his work was ended, 
he went to the forest to put up his snares, and 
hung them up — ha ! ha ! the children of Tane fell 
before him, none of them could any longer fly or 
move in safety. 

Then he next determined to take revenge on his 
brother Tangaroa, who had also deserted him in 
the combat ; so he sought for his offspring, and 
found them leaping or swimming in the water ; then 
he cut many leaves from the flax-plant, and netted 
nets with the flax, and dragged these, and hauled 
the children of Tangaroa ashore. 

After that, he determined also to be revenged 
upon his brothers Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tiki- 
tiki ; he soon found them by their peculiar leaves,* 
and he scraped into shape a wooden hoe, and 
plaited a basket, and dug in the earth and pulled 
up all kinds of plants with edible roots, and the 

* See next page. 



12 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



plants which had been dug up withered in the 
sun. 

Thus Tu-matauenga devoured all his brothers, 
and consumed the whole of them, in revenge for 
their having deserted him and left him to fight 
alone against Tawhiri-ma-tea and Rangi. 

When his brothers had all thus been overcome 
by Tu', he assumed several names, namely, Tu-ka- 
riri, Tu-ka-nguha, Tu-ka-taua, Tu-whaka-heke-tan- 
gata, Tu-mata-wha-iti, and Tu-matauenga ; he as- 
sumed one name for each of his attributes dis- 
played in the victories over his brothers. Four of 
his brothers were entirely deposed by him, and be- 
came his food ; but one of them, Tawhiri-ma-tea, 
he could not vanquish or make common, by eating 
him for food, so he, the last born child of Heaven 
and Earth, was left as an enemy for man, and still, 
with a rage equal to that of Mau, this elder brother 
ever attacks him in storms and hurricanes, endea- 
vouring to destroy him alike by sea and land. 

Now, the meanings of these names of the chil- 
dren of the Heaven and Earth are as follows : — 

Tan gar oa signifies fish of every kind ; Rongo- 
ma-tane signifies the sweet potato, and all vege- 
tables cultivated as food ; Haumia-tikitiki signifies 
fern root, and all kinds of food which grow wild ; 
Tane-mahuta signifies forests, the birds and insects 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 13 

which inhabit them, and all things fashioned from 
wood ; Tawhiri-ma-tea signifies winds and storms ; 
and Tu-matauenga signifies man. 

Four of his brothers having, as before stated, 
been made common, or articles of food, by Tu-mata- 
uenga, he assigned for each of them fitting incanta- 
tions, that they might be abundant, and that he 
might easily obtain them. 

Some incantations were proper to Tane-mahuta, 
they were called Tane. 

Some incantations were for Tangaroa, they were 
called Tangaroa. 

Some were for Rongo-ma-tane, they were called 
Rongo-ma-tane. 

Some were for Haumia-tikitiki, they were called 
Haumia. 

The reason that he sought out these incantations 
was, that his brothers might be made common by 
him, and serve for his food. There were also in- 
cantations for Tawhiri-ma-tea to cause favourable 
winds, and prayers to the vast Heaven for fair 
weather, as also for mother Earth that she might 
produce all things abundantly. But it was the 
great God that taught these prayers to man. 

There were also many prayers and incantations 
composed for man, suited to the different times 
and circumstances of his life — prayers at the bap- 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



tism of an infant; prayers for abundance of food, 
for wealth; prayers in illness; prayers to spirits, 
and for many other things. 

The bursting forth of the wrathful fury of Ta- 
wliiri-ma-tea against his brothers, was the cause of 
the disappearance of a great part of the dry land ; 
during that contest a great part of mother Earth 
was submerged. The names of those beings of 
ancient days who submerged so large a portion of 
the earth were — Terrible-rain, Long-continued-rain, 
Fierce-hail-storms ; and their progeny were, Mist, 
Heavy-dew, and Light-dew, and these together sub- 
merged the greater part of the earth, so that only 
a small portion of dry land projected above the 
sea. 

From that time clear light increased upon the 
earth, and all the beings which were hidden be- 
tween Pangi and Papa before they were separated, 
now multiplied upon the earth. The first beings 
begotten by Rangi and Papa were not like human 
beings ; but Tu-matauenga bore the likeness of a 
man, as did all his brothers, as also did a Po, a Ao, 
a Kore, te Kimihanga and Punuku, and thus it 
continued until the times of Ngainui and his gene- 
ration, and of Whiro-te-tupua and his generation, 
and of Tiki-tawhito-ariki and his generation, and 
it has so continued to this day. 



THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 15 

The children of Tu-iuatauenga were begotten 
on this earth, and they inereased, and continued to 
multiply, until we reach at last the generation of 
Maui-taha, and of his brothers Maui-roto, Maui- 
waho, Maui-pae, and Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga. 

Up to this time the vast Heaven has still ever 
remained separated from his spouse the Earth. 
Yet their mutual love still continues — the soft 
warm sighs of her loving bosom still ever rise up 
to him, ascending from the woody mountains and 
valleys, and men call these mists ; and the vast 
Heaven, as he mourns through the long nights his 
separation from his beloved, drops frequent tears 
upon her bosom, and men seeing these, term them 
dew-drops. 



16 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



THE LEGEND OF MAUL 1 



One day Maui asked his brothers to tell him the 
place where their father and mother dwelt ; he 
begged earnestly that they would make this known 
to him in order that he might go and visit the place 
where the two old people dwelt ; and they replied 
to him, " We don't know ; how can we tell 
whether they dwell up above the earth, or down 
under the earth, or at a distance from us." 
Then he answered them, " Never mind, I think I '11 
find them out ; " and his brothers replied, " Non- 
sense, how can you tell where they are — you, the 
last born of all of us, when we your elders have 
no knowledge where they are concealed from us ; 
after you first appeared to us, and made yourself 
known to us and to our mother as our brother, you 
know that our mother used to come and sleep with 
us every night, and as soon as the day broke she 
was gone, and, lo, there was nobody but ourselves 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



17 



sleeping in the house, and this took place night 
after night, and how can we tell then where she 
went or where she lives?" But he answered, 
" Y ery well, you stop here, and listen ; by and by 
you will hear news of me/' 

For he had found something out after he was 
discovered by his mother, by his relations, and by 
his brothers. They discovered him one night 
whilst they were all dancing in the great House 
of Assembly. Whilst his relations were all danc- 
ing there, they then found out who he was in this 
manner. For little Maui, the infant, crept into the 
house, and went and sat behind one of his bro- 
ther's, and hid himself, so when their mother 
counted her children that they might stand up 
ready for the dance, she said — " One, that 's Maui- 
taka ; two, that 's Maui-roto ; three, that's Maui- 
pae ; four, that 's Maui- waho ; " and then she saw 
another, and cried out, " Hollo, where did this 
fifth come from?" Then little Maui, the infant, 
answered, "Ah, I'm your child too." Then the 
old woman counted them all over again, and said, 
" Oh, no, there ought to be only four of you ; now 
for the first time I've seen you." Then little Maui 
and his mother stood for a long time disputing 
about this in the very middle of the ranks of all 
the dancers. 



18 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

At last she got angry, and cried out, " Come, 
you be off now, out of the house at once; you 
are no child of mine, you belong to some one else." 
Then little Maui spoke out quite boldly, and said, 
" Very well, I 'd better be off then, for I suppose, 
as you say it, I must be the child of some other 
person; but indeed I did think I was your child 
when I said so, because I knew I was born at 
the side of the sea,* and was thrown by you 
into the foam of the surf, after you had wrapped 
me up in a tuft of your hair, which you cut off 
for the purpose ; then the seaweed formed and 
fashioned me, as caught in its long tangles the 
ever-heaving surges of the sea rolled me, folded as 
I was in them, from side to side; at length the 
breezes and squalls which blew from the ocean 
drifted me on shore again, and the soft jelly-fish of 
the long sandy beaches rolled themselves round 
me to protect me ; then again myriads of flies 
alighted on me to buzz about me and lay their 
eggs, that maggots might eat me, and flocks of 

* If a child was born before its time, and thus perished without 
having known the joys and pleasures of life, it was carefully buried 
with peculiar incantations and ceremonies; because if cast into 
the water, or carelessly thrown aside, it became a malicious being 
or spirit, actuated by a peculiar antipathy to the human race, who 
it spitefully persecuted, from having been itself deprived of happi- 
ness which they enjoyed. All their malicious deities had an origin 
of this kind. 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



19 



birds collected round me to peck me to pieces, but 
at that moment appeared there also my great an- 
cestor, Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi, and he saw the flies 
and the birds collected in clusters and flocks above 
the jelly-fish, and the old man ran, as fast as he 
could, and stripped off the encircling jelly-fish, and 
behold within there lay a human being ; then he 
caught me up and carried me to his house, and he 
hung me up in the roof that I might feel the warm 
smoke and the heat of the fire, so I was saved alive 
by the kindness of that old man. At last I grew, 
and then I heard of the fame of the dancing of 
this great House of Assembly. It was that which 
brought me here. But from the time I was in 
your womb, I have heard the names of these your 
first-born children, as you have been calling them 
over until this very night, when I again heard 
you repeating them. In proof of this I will 
now recite your names to you, my brothers. You 
are Maui-taha, and you are Maui-roto, and you 
are Maui-pae, and you are Maui-waho, and as for 
me, I 'm little Maui-the-baby, and here I am sit- 
ting before you." 

When his mother, Taranga, heard all this, she 
cried out, " You dear little child, you are indeed 
my last-born, the son of my old age, therefore I 
now tell you your name shall be Maui-tiki-tiki-a- 



20 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Taranga, or Maui-fonned-in-the-top-knot-of-Taran- 
ga," and he was called by that name. 

After the disputing which took place on that 
occasion, his mother, Taranga, called to her last- 
born, " Come here, my child, and sleep with the 
mother who bore you, that I may kiss you, and 
that you may kiss me," and he ran to sleep with 
his mother. Then his elder brothers were jealous, and 
began to murmur about this to each other. " Well, 
indeed, our mother never asks us to go and sleep 
with her ; yet we are the children she saw actually 
born, and about whose birth there is no doubt. 
When we were little things she nursed us, laying us 
down gently on the large soft mats she had spread 
out for us — then why does she not ask us now to sleep 
with her ? when we were little things she was fond 
enough of us, but now we are grown older she 
never caresses us, or treats us kindly. But as for 
this little abortion, who can really tell whether he 
was nursed by the sea-tangles or by whom, or 
whether he is not some other person's child, and 
here he is now sleeping with our mother. Who 
would ever have believed that a little abortion, 
thrown into the ocean, would have come back to 
the world again a living human being ! — and now 
this little rogue has the impudence to call himself a 
relation of ours." 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



21 



Then the two elder brothers said to the two 
younger ones, " Never mind, let him be our dear 
brother ; in the days of peace remember the pro- 
verb—when you are on friendly terms, settle your 
disputes in a friendly way — when you are at war, 
you must redress your injuries by violence. It is 
better for us, oh, brothers, to be kind to other 
people ; these are the ways by which men gain in- 
fluence in the world — by labouring for abundance of 
food to feed others — by collecting property to give 
to others, and by similar means by which you pro- 
mote the good of others, so that peace spreads 
through the world. Let us take care that we are 
not like the children of Rangi-nui and of Papa-tu-a- 
nuku, who turned over in their minds thoughts for 
slaying their parents ; four of them consented, but 
Tawhiri-ma-tea had little desire for this, for he 
loved his parents ; but the rest of his brothers 
agreed to slay them ; afterwards when Tawhiri saw 
that the husband was separated far from his wife, 
then he thought what it was his duty to do, and he 
fought against his brothers. Thence sprang the 
cause which led Tu-matauenga to wage war against 
his brethren and his parents, and now at last this 
contest is carried on even between his own kindred, 
so that man fights against man. Therefore let us 
be careful not to foster divisions amongst ourselves, 



22 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



lest such wicked thoughts should finally turn us 
each against the other, and thus we should be like 
the children of Rangi-nui and of Papa-tu-a-nuku." 
The two younger brothers, when they heard this, 
answered, "Yes, yes, oh, eldest brothers of ours, you 
are quite right ; let our murmuring end here." 

It was now night ; but early in the morning Ta- 
ranga rose up, and suddenly, in a moment of time, 
she was gone from the house where her children 
were. As soon as they woke up they looked all 
about to no purpose, as they could not see her ; the 
elder brothers knew she had left them, and were 
accustomed to it ; but the little child was exceed- 
ingly vexed; yet he thought, I cannot see her, 't is 
true, but perhaps she has only gone to prepare 
some food for us. No — no — she was off, far, far 
away. 

Now at nightfall when their mother came back 
to them, her children were dancing and singing as 
usual. As soon as they had finished, she called to 
her last born, " Come here, my child, let us sleep 
together f so they slept together ; but as soon 
as day dawned, she disappeared ; the little fellow 
now felt quite suspicious at such strange proceed- 
ings on the part of his mother every morning. 
But at last, upon another night, as he slept again 
with his mother, the rest of his brothers that 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



23 



night also sleeping with them, the little fellow 
crept out in the night and stole his mother's apron, 
her belt, and clothes, and hid them; then he went 
and stopped up every crevice in the wooden win- 
dow, and in the doorway, so that the light of the 
dawn might not shine into the house, and make 
his mother hurry to get up. But after he had 
done this, his little heart still felt very anxious 
and uneasy lest his mother should, in her im- 
patience, rise in the darkness and defeat his plans. 
But the night dragged its slow length along with- 
out his mother moving ; at last there came the 
faint light of early morn, so that at one end of a 
long house you could see the legs of the people 
sleeping at the other end of it, but his mother 
still slept on ; then the sun rose up, and mounted 
far up above the horizon ; now at last his mother 
moved, and began to think to herself, " What kind of 
night can this be, to last so long?" and having 
thought thus, she dropped asleep again. Again she 
awoke, and began to think to herself, but could 
not tell that it was broad daylight outside, as 
the window and every chink in the house were 
stopped closely up. 

At last up she jumped ; and finding herself quite 
naked, began to look for her clothes, and apron, 
but could find neither; then she ran and pulled 



24 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



out the tilings with which the chinks in the win- 
dows and doors were stopped up, and whilst doing 
so, oh, dear ! oh, dear! there she saw the sun high 
up in the heavens ; then she snatched up, as she 
ran off, the old clout of a flax cloak, with which 
the door of the house had been stopped up, and 
carried it off as her only covering ; getting, at 
last, outside the house, she hurried away, and ran 
crying at the thought of having been so badly 
treated by her own children. 

As soon as his mother got outside the house, 
little Maui jumped up, and kneeling upon his hands 
and knees peeped after her through the doorway 
into the bright light. Whilst he was watching her, 
the old woman reached down to a tuft of rushes, 
and snatching it up from the ground, dropped 
into a hole underneath it, and clapping the tuft 
of rushes in the hole again, as if it were its cover- 
ing, so disappeared. Then little Maui jumped on 
his feet, and, as hard as he could go, ran out of 
the house, pulled up the tuft of rushes, and peeping 
down, discovered a beautiful open cave running 
quite deep into the earth. 

He covered up the hole again and returned to 
the house, and waking up his brothers who were 
still sleeping, said, " Come, come, my brothers, 
rouse up, you have slept long enough ; come, get 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



25 



up ; here we are again cajoled by our mother/' 
Then his brothers made haste and got up ; alasS 
alas! the sun was quite high up in the heavens. 

The little Maui now asked his brothers again, 
" Where do you think the place is where our father 
and mother dwell?" and they answered, "How 
should we know, we have never seen it ; although 
we are Maui-taha, and Maui-roto, and Maui-pae, 
and Maui-waho, we have never seen the place ; and 
do you think you can find that place which you are 
so anxious to see ? What does it signify to you ? 
Cannot you stop quietly with us? What do we 
care about our father, or about our mother ? Did 
she feed us with food till we grew up to be men ? — 
not a bit of it. Why, without doubt, Rangi, or 
the heaven, is our father, who kindly sent his off- 
spring down to us ; Hau-whenua, or gentle breezes, 
to cool the earth and young plants ; and Hau-ma- 
ringiringi, or mists, to moisten them ; and Hau-ma- 
roto-roto, or fine weather, to make them grow ; and 
Touarangi, or rain, to water them ; and Tomairangi, 
or dews, to nourish them: he gave these his off- 
spring to cause our food to grow, and then Papa-tu- 
a-nuku, or the earth, made her seeds to spring, and 
grow forth, and provide sustenance for her children 
in this long-continuing world/' 

Little Maui then answered, " What you say 
is truly quite correct ; but such thoughts and say- 

c 



26 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



ings would better become me than you, for in 
the foaming bubbles of the sea I was nursed and 
fed : it would please me better if you would think 
over and remember the time when you were 
nursed at your mother's breast ; it could not have 
been until after you had ceased to be nourished by 
her milk that you could have eaten the kinds of 
food you have mentioned ; as for me, oh ! my bro- 
thers, I have never partaken either of her milk or 
of her food ; yet I love her, for this single reason 
alone — that I lay in her womb ; and because I 
love her, I wish to know where is the place where 
she and my father dwell." 

His brothers felt quite surprised and pleased 
with their little brother when they heard him talk 
in this way, and when after a little time they had 
recovered from their amazement, they told him to 
try and find their father and mother. So he 
said he would go. It was a long time ago that 
he had finished his first labour, for when he 
first appeared to his relatives in their house of 
singing and dancing, he had on that occasion trans- 
formed himself into the likeness of all manner of 
birds, of every bird in the world, and yet no single 
form that he then assumed had pleased his brothers ; 
but now when he showed himself to them, trans- 
formed into the semblance of a pigeon, his bro- 
thers said, "All! now indeed, oh, brother, you do 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 27 



look very well indeed, very beautiful, very beau- 
tiful, much more beautiful than you looked in any of 
the other forms which you assumed, and then changed 
from, when you first discovered yourself to us." 

What made him now look so well in the shape 
he had assumed was the belt of his mother, and 
her .apron, which he had stolen from her while she 
was asleep in the house ; for the very thing which 
looked so white upon the breast of the pigeon was 
his mother s broad belt, and he also had on her 
little apron of burnished hair from the tail of a 
dog, and the fastening of her belt was what formed 
the beautiful black feathers on his throat. He had 
once changed himself into this form a long time 
ago, and now that he was going to look for his 
father and mother, and had quitted his brothers to 
transform himself into the likeness of a pigeon, 
he assumed exactly the same form as on the pre- 
vious occasion, and when his brothers saw him thus 
again, they said, " Oh, brother ! oh, brother ! you do 
really look well indeed f and when he sat upon 
the bough of a tree, oh, dear! he never moved, or 
jumped about from spray to spray, but sat quite 
still, cooing to himself, so that no one who had seen 
him could have helped thinking of the proverb — "A 
stupid pigeon sits on one bough, and jumps not 
from spray to spray/' Early the next morning, he 
said to his brothers, as was first stated, "Now do you 

c 2 



28 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



remain here, and you will hear something of me 
after I am gone ; it is my great love for my 
parents that leads me to search for them ; now 
listen to me, and then say whether or not my 
recent feats were not remarkable. For the feat of 
transforming oneself into "birds can only be accom- 
plished by a man who is skilled in magic, and yet 
here I, the youngest of you all, have assumed the 
form of all birds, and now, perhaps, after all, I shall 
quite lose my art, and become old and weakened in 
the long journey to the place where I am going/' 
His brothers answered him thus : — " That might be 
indeed, if you were going upon a warlike expedition, 
but, in truth, you are only going to look for those 
parents who, we all, so long to see, and if they are 
found by you, we shall ever after all dwell happily, 
our present sorrow will be ended, and we shall 
continually pass backwards and forwards between 
our dwelling-place and theirs, paying them happy 
visits." 

He answered them, " It is certainly a very good 
cause which leads me to undertake this journey, 
and if, when reaching the place I am going to, I 
find everything agreeable and nice, then I shall, 
perhaps, be pleased with it, but if I find it a bad, 
disagreeable place, I shall be disgusted with it" 
They replied to him, " What you say is exceedingly 
true, depart then upon your journey, with your 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



29 



great knowledge and skill in magic/' Then their 
brother went into the wood, and came back to them 
again, looking just as if he were a real pigeon. 
His brothers were quite delighted, and they had 
no power left to do anything but admire him. 

Then off he flew, until he came to the cave 
which his mother had run down into, and he lifted 
up the tuft of rushes ; then down he went and dis- 
appeared in the cave, and shut up its mouth again 
so as to hide the entrance ; away he flew very fast 
indeed, and twice he dipped his wing, because the 
cave was narrow ; soon he reached nearly to the 
bottom of the cave, and flew along it ; and again, 
because the cave was so narrow, he dips first one 
wing and then the other, but the cave now widened, 
and he dashed straight on. 

At last he saw a party of people coming along 
under a grove of trees, they were manapau trees,* 
and flying on, he perched upon the top of one of these 
trees, under which the people had seated themselves ; 
and when he saw his mother lying down on the 
grass by the side of her husband, he guessed at 
once who they were, and he thought, " Ah ! there 
sit my father and mother right under me;" and he 
soon heard their names, as they were called to by 

* The manapau was a species of tree peculiar to the country 
from whence the people came, where the priests say it was known 
by that name. 



30 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



their friends who were sitting with them ; then the 
pigeon hopped down, and perched on another spray 
a little lower, and it pecked off one of the ber- 
ries of the tree and dropped it gently down, and 
hit the father with it on the forehead ; and some of 
the party said, " Was it a bird which threw that 
down V but the father said, " Oh no, it was only a 
berry that fell by chance." 

Then the pigeon again pecked off some of the 
berries from the tree, and threw them down with 
all its force, and struck both father and mother, so 
that he really hurt them ; then they cried out, and 
the whole party jumped up and looked into the 
tree, and as the pigeon began to coo, they soon 
found out from the noise, where it was sitting 
amongst the leaves and branches, and the whole of 
them, the chiefs and common people alike, caught 
up stones to pelt the pigeon with, but they threw 
for a very long time, without hitting it ; at last 
the father tried to throw up at it ; ah, he struck 
it, but Maui had himself contrived that he should 
be struck by the stone which his father threw ; for, 
but by his own choice, no one could have hit him ; 
he was struck exactly upon his left leg, and down 
he fell, and as he lay fluttering and struggling upon 
the ground, they all ran to catch him, but lo, the 
pigeon had turned into a man, 

Then all those who saw him were frightened at 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



31 



his fierce glaring eyes, which were red as if painted 
with red ochre, and they said, " Oh, it is now no 
wonder that he so long sat still up in the tree ; had 
he been a bird he would have flown off long before, 
but he is a man " and some of them said, " No, 
indeed, rather a god — -just look at his form and 
appearance, the like has never been seen before, 
since Kangi and Papa-tu-a-nuku were torn apart/' 
Then Taranga said, " I used to see one who looked 
like this person every night when I went to visit my 
children, but what I saw then excelled what I see 
now ; just listen to me. Once as I was wandering 
upon the sea-shore, I prematurely gave birth to one 
of my children, and I cut off the long tresses of my 
hair, and bound him up in them, and threw him 
into the foam of the sea, and after that he was 
found by his ancestor Tama-nui-ki-te-Kangi and 
then she told his history nearly in the same words 
that Maui-the-infant had told it to herself and his 
brothers in their house, and having finished his 
history, Taranga ended her discourse to her hus- 
band and his friends. 

Then his mother asked Maui, who was sitting 
near her, " Where do you come from ? from the west- 
ward?" and he answered, "No." "From the 
north-east then V " No." " From the south-east 
then V " No/' " From the south then 1" " No." 
" Was it the wind which blows upon me, which 



32 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



brought you here to me then?" when she asked 
this, he opened his mouth and answered, " Yes." 
And she cried out, " Oh, this then is indeed my 
child ;" and she said, "Are you Maui-taha?" he an- 
swered, " No." Then said she, " Are you Maui- 
tikitiki-o-Taranga V and he answered, "Yes." 
And she cried aloud, " This is, indeed, my child. 
By the winds and storms and wave-uplifting gales 
he was fashioned and became a human being ; wel- 
come, oh my child, welcome; by you shall hereafter 
be climbed the threshold of the house of your 
great ancestor Hine-nui-te-po, and death shall 
thenceforth have no power over man." 

Then the lad was taken by his father to the 
water, to be baptized, and after the ceremony 
prayers were offered to make him sacred, and clean 
from all impurities ; but when it was completed, 
his father Makea-tu- tara felt greatly alarmed, be- 
cause he remembered that he had, from mistake, 
hurriedly skipped over part of the prayers of the 
baptismal service, and of the services to purify 
Maui ; he knew that the gods would be certain 
to punish this fault, by causing Maui to die, and 
his alarm and anxiety were therefore extreme. At 
night -fall they all went into Ins house. 

Maui, after these things, returned to his brothers 
to tell them that he had found his parents, and to 
explain to them where they dwelt. 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



33 



Shortly after Maui had thus returned to his 
brothers, he slew and carried off his first victim, 
who was the daughter of Maru-te-whare-aitu ; after- 
wards, by enchantments, he destroyed the crops of 
Maru-te-whare-aitu, so that they all withered. 

He then again paid a visit to his parents, and 
remained for some time with them, and whilst he was 
there he remarked that some of their people daily 
carried away a present of food for some person ; at 
length, surprised at this, he one day asked them, — 
" Who is that you are taking that present of food 
to?" And the people who were going with it 
answered him, — " It is for your ancestress, for 
Muri-ranga-wh enua. " 

He asked again, — "Where does she dwell?" 
They answered, — " Yonder." 

Thereupon he says, — " That will do ; leave here 
the present of food, I will carry it to her myself." 

From that time the daily presents of food for his 
ancestress were carried by Maui himself ; but he 
never took and gave them to her that she might 
eat them, but he quietly laid them by on one side, 
and this he did for many days. At last, Muri- 
ranga-whenua suspected that something wrong w^as 
going on, and the next time he came along the 
path carrying the present of food, the old chief- 
tainess sniffed and sniffed until she thought she 
smelt something coming, and she was very much 

c 3 



34 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



exasperated, and her stomach began to distend itself, 
that she might be ready to devour Maui as soon as 
he came there. Then she turned to the southward, 
and smelt and sniffed, but not a scent of anything 
reached her ; then she turned round from the south 
to the north, by the east, with her nose up in the 
air sniffing and smelling to every point as she 
turned slowly round, but she could not detect the 
slightest scent of a human being, and almost 
thought that she must have been mistaken ; but 
she made one more trial, and sniffed the breeze 
towards the westward. Ah ! then the scent of a 
man came plainly to her, so she called aloud — " I 
know from the smell wafted here to me by the 
breeze that somebody is close to me," and Maui 
murmured assent. Thus the old woman knew 
that he was a descendant of hers, and her stomach, 
which was quite large and distended, immediately 
began to shrink, and contract itself again. If the 
smell of Maui had not been carried to her by the 
western breeze, undoubtedly she would have eaten 
him up. 

When the stomach of Muri-ranga-whenua had 
quietly sunk down to its usual size, her voice 
was again heard saying, "Art thou Maui?" and 
he answered, . " Even so." 

Then she asked him, "Wherefore hast thou 
served thy old ancestress in this deceitful way?" 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



35 



and Maui answered, "I was anxious that thy jaw- 
bone, by which the great enchantments can be 
wrought, should be given to me/' 

She answered, " Take it, it has been reserved for 
thee/' And Maui took it, and having done so 
returned to the place where he and his brothers 
dwelt. 

The young hero, Maui, had not been long at 
home with his brothers when he began to think, 
that it was too soon after the rising of the sun that 
it became night again, and that the sun again sank 
down below the horizon, every day, every day ; in 
the same manner the days appeared too short to 
him. So at last, one day he said to his brothers, 
" Let us now catch the sun in a noose, so that we 
may compel him to move more slowly, in order 
that mankind may have long days to labour in to 
procure subsistence for themselves \" but they an- 
swered him, " "Why, no man could approach it on 
account of its warmth, and the fierceness of its 
heat but the young hero said to them, " Have 
you not seen the multitude of things I have already 
achieved ? Did not you see me change myself into 
the likeness of every bird of the forest ; you a] id I 
equally had the aspect and appearance of men, yet 
I by my enchantments changed suddenly from the 
appearance of a man and became a bird, and 
then, continuing to change my form, I resem- 



36 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



bled this bird or that bird, one after the other, until 
I had by* degrees transformed myself into every 
bird in the world, small or great ; and did I not 
after all this again assume the form of a man ? 
[This he did soon after he was born, and it was 
after that he snared the sun.] Therefore, as for 
that feat, oh, my brothers, the changing myself 
into birds, I accomplished it by enchantments, and 
I will by the same means accomplish also this 
other thing which I have in my mind." When 
his brothers heard this, they consented on his per- 
suasions to aid him in the conquest of the sun. 

Then they began to spin and twist ropes to form 
a noose to catch the sun in, and in doing this they 
discovered the mode of plaiting flax into stout 
square-shaped ropes (tuaniaka), and the manner of 
plaiting flat ropes (paJiarahara), and of spinning 
round ropes ; at last, they finished making all the 
ropes which they required. Then Maui took up 
his enchanted weapon, and he took his brothers 
with him, and they carried their provisions, ropes, 
and other things with them, in their hands. They 
travelled all night, and as soon as day broke, they 
halted in the desert, and hid themselves that they 
might not be seen by the sun ; and at night 
they renewed their journey, and before dawn 
they halted, and hid themselves again ; at length 
they got very far, very far, to the eastward, and 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



37 



came to the very edge of the place out of which 
the sun rises. 

Then they set to work and built on each side of 
this place a long high wall of clay, with huts of 
boughs of trees at each end to hide themselves in : 
when these were finished, they made the loops of 
the noose, and the brothers of Maui then lay in wait 
on one side of the place out of which the sun rises, 
and Maui himself lay in wait upon the other side. 

The young hero held in his hand his enchanted 
weapon, the jaw-bone of his ancestress — of Muri- 
ranga-whenua, and said to his brothers, " Mind 
now, keep yourselves hid, and do not go showing 
yourselves foolishly to the sun ; if you do, you will 
frighten him ; but wait patiently until his head 
and fore legs have got well into the snare, then I 
will shout out ; haul away as hard as you can on 
the ropes on both sides, and then I '11 rush out 
and attack him, but do you keep your ropes 
tight for a good long time (while I attack him), 
until he is nearly dead, when we will let him go ; 
but mind now, my brothers, do not let him move 
you to pity with his shrieks and screams/' 

At last the sun came rising up out of his place, 
like a fire spreading far and wide over the moun- 
tains and forests ; he rises up, his head passes 
through the noose, and it takes in more and more 
of his body, until his fore-paws pass through ; then 



38 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



are pulled tight the ropes, and the monster began 
to struggle and roll himself about, whilst the snare 
jerked backwards and forwards as he struggled. Ah! 
was not he held fast in the ropes of his enemies ! 

Then forth rushed that bold hero, Maui-tiki-tiki-o- 
Taranga, with his enchanted weapon. Alas ! the sun 
screams aloud; he roars; Maui strikes him fiercely 
with many blows ; they hold him for a long time, 
at last they let him go, and then weak from wounds 
the sun crept slowly along its course. Then was 
learnt by men the second name of the sun, for in 
its agony the sun screamed out, " Why am I thus 
smitten by you ! oh, man ! do you know what you 
are doing ? Why should you wish to kill Tama- 
nui-te-Ra?" Thus was learnt his second name. At 
last they let him go. Oh, then, Tama-nui-te-Ra 
went very slowly and feebly on his course. 

Maui-taha and his brothers after this feat re- 
turned again to their own house, and dwelt there, 
and dwelt there, and dwelt there ; and after a long 
time his brothers went out fishing, whilst Maui- 
tiki-tiki-o-Taranga stopped idly at home doing no- 
thing, although indeed he had to listen to the sulky 
grumblings of his wives and children, at his laziness 
in not catching fish for them. Then he called 
out to the women, " Never mind, oh, mothers, your- 
selves and your children need not fear. Have not 
I accomplished all things, and as for this little feat, 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI, 



39 



this trifling work of getting food for you, do you 
think I cannot do that \ certainly ; if I go and get 
a fish for you, it will be one so large that when 
I bring it to land you will not be able to eat it all, 
and the sun will shine on it and make it putrid 
before it is consumed. Then Maui snooded his en- 
chanted fish-hook, which was pointed with part of 
the jaw-bone of Muri-ranga-whenua, and when he 
had finished this, he twisted a stout fishing-line to 
his hook. 

His brothers in the meantime had arranged 
amongst themselves to make fast the lashings 
of the top sides of their canoe, in order to go out 
for a good day's fishing. When all was made 
ready they launched their canoe, and as soon 
as it was afloat Maui jumped into it, and his 
brothers, who were afraid of his enchantments, cried 
out, " Come, get out again, we will not let you go 
with us ; your magical arts will get us into some 
difficulty." So he was compelled to remain ashore 
whilst his brothers paddled off, and when they 
reached the fishing ground they lay upon their 
paddles and fished, and after a good day's sport 
returned ashore. 

As soon as it was dark night Maui went down 
to the shore, got into his brothers' canoe, and hid 
himself under the bottom boards of it. The next 
forenoon his brothers came down to the shore to go 



40 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



fishing again, and they had their canoe launched, 
and paddled out to sea without ever seeing Maui, 
who lay hid in the hollow of the canoe under the 
bottom boards. When they got well out to sea 
Maui crept out of his hiding place ; as soon as his 
brothers saw him, they said, " We had better get 
back to the shore again as fast as we can, since this 
fellow is on board \" but Maui, by his enchantments, 
stretched out the sea so that the shore instantly be- 
came very distant from them, and by the time they 
could turn themselves round to look for it, it was 
out of view. Maui now said to them, "You had 
better let me go on with you, I shall at least be 
useful to bail the water out of our canoe/' To 
this they consented, and they paddled on again 
and speedily arrived at the fishing ground where 
they used to fish upon former occasions. As soon as 
they got there his brothers said, " Let us drop the 
anchor and fish here and he answered, "Oh no, 
don't ; we had much better paddle a long distance 
further out/' Upon this they paddle on, and pad- 
dle as far as the furthest fishing ground, a long 
way out to sea, and then his brothers at last say, 
" Come now, we must drop anchor and fish here/' 
And he replies again, " Oh, the fish here are very 
fine I suppose, but we had much better pull right 
out to sea, and drop anchor there. If we go out to 
the place where I wish the anchor to be let go, be- 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



41 



fore you can get a hook to the bottom, a fish will 
come following it back to the top of the water. 
You won't have to stop there a longer time than 
you can wink your eye in, and our canoe will come 
back to shore full of fish/' As soon as they hear 
this they paddle away — they paddle away until 
they reach a very long distance off, and his brothers 
then say, " "We are now far enough/' And he re- 
plies, " No, no, let us go out of sight of land, and 
when we have quite lost sight of it, then let the 
anchor be dropped, but let it be very far off, quite 
out in the open sea/' 

At last they reach the open sea, and his brothers 
begin to fish. Lo, lo, they had hardly let their 
hooks down to the bottom, when they each pulled 
up a fish into the canoe. Twice only they let 
down their lines, when behold the canoe was filled 
up with the number of fish they had caught. 
Then his brothers said, " Oh, brother, let us all 
return now." And he answered them, " Stay a 
little ; let me also throw my hook into the sea." 
/'And his brothers replied, " Where did you get a 
hook?" And he answered, "Oh, never mind, I 
have a hook of my own." And his brothers re- 
plied again, "Make haste and throw it then/ J 
And as he pulled it out from under his garments, 
the light flashed from the beautiful mother-of-pearl 
shell in the hollow of the hook, and his brothers saw 



42 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



that the hook was carved and ornamented with 
tufts of hair pulled from the tail of a dog, and it 
looked exceedingly beautiful^ Maui then asked his 
brothers to give him a little bait to bait his hook 
with ; but they replied, " We will not give you 
any of our bait." So he doubled his fist and 
struck his nose violently, and the blood gushed out, 
and he smeared his hook with his own blood for 
bait, and then he cast it into the sea, and it sank 
down, and sank down, till it reached to the small 
carved figure on the roof of a house at the bottom 
of the sea, then passing by the figure, it descended 
along the outside carved rafters of the roof, and 
fell in at the doorway of the house, and the hook 
of Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga caught first in the sill of 
the doorway. 

Then, feeling something on his hook, he began 
to haul in his line. Ah ! ah ! there ascended on 
his hook the house of that old fellow Tonga- 
nui. It came up, up ; and as it rose high, oh, 
dear ! how his hook was strained with its great 
weight ; and then there came gurgling up foam 
and bubbles from the earth, as of an island 
emerging from the water, and his brothers opened 
their mouths and cried aloud. 

Maui all this time continued to chaunt forth 
his incantations amidst the murmurings and wail- 
ings of his brothers, who were weeping and 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



43 



lamenting, and saying, " See now, how he has 
brought us out into the open sea, that we may be 
upset in it, and devoured by the fish/' Then 
he raised aloud his voice, and repeated the incan- 
tation called Hiki, which makes heavy weights 
light, in order that the fish he had caught might 
come up easily, and he chanted an incantation 
beginning thus, — 

" Wherefore, then, oh I Tonganui, 
Dost thou hold fast so obstinately below there % " 

When he had finished his incantation, there floated 
up, hanging to his line, the fish of Maui, a portion 
of the earth, of Papa-tu-a-Nuku. Alas ! alas ! their 
canoe lay aground. 

Maui then left his brothers with their canoe, 
and returned to the village ; but before he went 
he said to them, "After, I am gone, be cou- 
rageous and patient ; do not eat food until I re- 
turn, and do not let our fish be cut up, but rather 
leave it until I have carried an offering to the 
gods from this great haul of fish, and until I have 
found a priest, that fitting prayers and sacrifices 
may be offered to the god, and the necessary rites 
be completed in order. We shall thus all be puri- 
fied. I will then return, and we can cut up 
this fish in safety, and it shall be fairly portioned 
out to this one, and to that one, and to that other ; 
and on my arrival you shall each have your due 



44 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



share of it, and return to your homes joyfully ; and 
what we leave behind us will keep good, and that 
which we take away with us, returning, will be 

good too/' 

Maui had hardly gone, after saying all this to 
them, than his brothers trampled under their feet the 
words they had heard him speak. They began at 
once to eat food, and to cut up the fish. When they 
did this, Maui had not yet arrived at the sacred 
place, in the presence of the god ; had he previously 
reached the sacred place, the heart of the deity 
would have been appeased with the offering of a 
portion of the fish which had been caught by his 
disciples, and all the male and female deities would 
have partaken of their portions of the sacrifice. 
Alas ! alas ! those foolish, thoughtless brothers of his 
cut up the fish, and behold the gods turned with 
wrath upon them, on account of the fish which 
they had thus cut up without having made a fit- 
ting sacrifice. Then, indeed, the fish began to toss 
about his head from side to side, and to lash his 
tail, and the fins upon his back, and his lower jaw. 
Ah ! ah ! well done Tangaroa, it springs about on 
shore as briskly as if it was in the water. 

That is the reason that this island is now so 
rough and uneven — that here stands a mountain — 
that there lies a plain — that here descends a vale — 
that there rises a cliff. If the brothers of Maui 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



45 



had not acted so deceitfully, the huge fish would 
have lain flat and smooth, and would have re- 
mained as a model for the rest of the earth, for the 
present generation of men. This, which has just 
been recounted, is the second evil which took place 
after the separation of Heaven from Earth. 

Thus was dry land fished up by Maui after it 
had been hidden under the ocean by Kangi and 
Tawhiri-ma-tea. It was with an enchanted fish- 
hook that he drew it up, which was pointed with 
a bit of the jaw-bone of his ancestress Muri-ranga- 
whenua ; and in the district of Heretaunga they 
still show the fish-hook of Maui, which became a 
cape stretching far out into the sea, and now forms 
the southern extremity of Hawke's Bay. 

The hero now thought that he would extinguish 
and destroy the fires of his ancestress of Mahu-ika. 
So he got up in the night, and put out the fires 
left in the cooking- houses of each family in the 
village ; then, quite early in the morning, he called 
aloud to the servants, " I hunger, I hunger ; quick, 
cook some food for me/' One of the servants 
thereupon ran as fast as he could to make up the 
fire to cook some food, but the fire was out ; and 
as he ran round from house to house in the village 
to get a light, he found every fire quite out — he 
could nowhere get a light. 

When Maui's mother heard this, she called out 



46 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



to the servants, and said, " Some of you repair to 
my great ancestress Mahu-ika ; tell her that fire 
has been lost upon earth, and ask her to give some 
to the world again/' But the slaves were alarmed, 
and refused to obey the commands which their mas- 
ters, the sacred old people, gave them ; and they 
persisted in refusing to go, notwithstanding the old 
people repeatedly ordered them to do so. 

At last, Maui said to his mother, " Well ; then 
I will fetch down fire for the world ; but which is 
the path by which I must go ?" And his parents, 
who knew the country well, said to him, " If you 
will go, follow that broad path that lies just before 
you there ; and you will at last reach the dwell- 
ing of an ancestress of yours ; and if she asks 
you who you are, you had better call out your 
name to her, then she will know you are a descen- 
dant of hers ; but be cautious, and do not 
play any tricks with her, because we have heard 
that your deeds are greater than the deeds of men, 
and that you are fond of deceiving and injuring 
others, and perhaps you even now intend in many 
ways, to deceive this old ancestress of yours, 
but pray be cautious not to do so/' 

But Maui said, " No, I only want to bring fire 
away for men, that is all, and I '11 return again as 
soon as I can do that ?" Then he went, and 
reached the abode of the goddess of fire ; and he 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



47 



was so filled with wonder at what he saw, that for 
a long time he could say nothing. At last he said, 
" Oh, lady, would you rise up ? Where is your fire 
kept ? I have come to beg some from you." 

Then the aged lady rose right up, and said, 
" Au-e ! who can this mortal be V and he answered, 
" It 's I." " Where do you come from ?" said she ; 
and he answered, " I belong to this country/' 
" You are not from this country," said she ; " your 
appearance is not like that of the inhabitants of 
this country. Do you come from the north-east?" 
he replied, " No." " Do you come from the south- 
east I" he replied, " No." " Are you from the 
south?" he replied, "No/' "Are you from the 
westward ?" he answered, " No." " Come you, 
then, from the direction of the wind which blows 
right upon me V and he said, " I do." " Oh, 
then," cried she, " you are my grand-child ; what 
do you want here ? " He answered, " I am come 
to beg fire from you." She replied, " Welcome, wel- 
come ; here then is fire for you." 

Then the aged woman pulled out her nail ; 
and as she pulled it out fire flowed from it, and 
she gave it to him. And when Maui saw she had 
drawn out her nail to produce fire for him, he 
thought it a most wonderful thing ! Then he went 
a short distance off, and when not very far 
from her, he put the fire out, quite out ; and 



48 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



returning to her again, said, " The light you 
gave me has gone out, give me another." Then 
she caught hold of another nail, and pulled it out 
as a light for him ; and he left her, and went a 
little on one side, and put that light out also ; 
then he went back to her again, and said, " Oh, 
lady, give me, I pray you, another light, for the 
last one has also gone out. And thus he went on 
and on, until she had pulled out all the nails of 
the fingers of one of her hands ; and then she be- 
gan with the other hand, until she had pulled all 
the finger-nails out of that hand, too ; and then^she 
commenced upon the nails of her feet, and pulled 
them also out in the same manner, except the nail 
of one of her big toes. Then the aged woman said 
to herself at last, " This fellow is surely playing 
tricks with me." 

Then out she pulled the one toe-nail that she had 
left, and it, too, became fire, and as she dashed it 
down on the ground the whole place caught fire. 
And she cried out to Maui, " There, you have it all 
now ! " And Maui ran off, and made a rush to 
escape, but the fire followed hard after him, close be- 
hind him ; so he changed himself into a fleet-winged 
eagle, and flew with rapid flight, but the fire pur- 
sued, and almost caught him as he flew. Then the 
eagle dashed down into a pool of water ; but when 
he got into the water he found that almost boiling 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



49 



too : the forests just then also caught fire, so that 
it could not alight anywhere, and the earth and 
the sea both caught fire too, and Maui was very near 
perishing in the flames. 

Then he called on his ancestors Tawhiri-ma-tea 
and Whatitiri-matakataka, to send down an abun- 
dant supply of water, and he cried aloud, " Oh, let 
water be given to me to quench this fire which pur- 
sues after me;" and lo, then appeared squalls and 
gales, and Tawhiri-ma-tea sent heavy lasting rain, 
and the fire was quenched ; and before Mahuika 
could reach her place of shelter, she almost perished 
in the rain, and her shrieks and screams became 
as loud as those of Maui had been, when he was 
scorched by the pursuing fire : thus Maui ended 
this proceeding. In this manner was extin- 
guished the fire of Mahuika, the goddess of fire ; 
but before it was all lost, she saved a few sparks 
which she threw, to protect them, into the Kaiko- 
mako, and a few other trees, where they are still 
cherished ; hence, men yet use portions of the wood 
of these trees for fire when they require a light. 

Then he returned to the village, and his mother 
and father said to him, " You heard when we 
warned you before you went, nevertheless you 
played tricks with your ancestress ; it served you 
right that you got into such trouble f and the 

D 



50 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



young fellow answered his parents, " Oh, what do 
I care for that ; do you think that my perverse 
proceedings are put a stop to by this? certainly 
not ; I intend to go on in the same way for ever, 
ever, ever." And his father answered him, " Yes, 
then, you may just please yourself about living or 
dying ; if you will only attend to me you will 
save your life ; if you do not attend to what I say, 
it will be worse for you, that is all." As soon as 
this conversation was ended, off the young fellow 
went to find some more companions for his other 
scrapes. 

Maui had a young sister named Hinauri, who 
was exceedingly beautiful ; she married Irawaru. 
One day Maui and his brother-in-law went down to 
the sea to fish; Maui caught not a single fish with 
his hook, which had no barb to it, but as long as 
they went on fishing Maui observed that Irawaru 
continued catching plenty of fish; so he thought to 
himself, "Well, how is this? how does that fellow 
catch so many whilst I cannot catch one V Just as 
he thought this, Irawaru had another bite, and up 
he pulls his line in haste, but it had got entangled 
with that of Maui, and Maui thinking he felt a fish 
pulling at his own line, drew it in quite delighted; 
but when he had hauled up a good deal of it, there 
were himself and his brother-in-law pulling in their 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 51 

lines in different directions, one drawing the line 
towards the bow of the canoe, the other towards 
the stern. 

Maui, who was already provoked at his own ill- 
luck, and the good luck of his brother-in-law, now 
called out quite angrily, " Come, let go my line, 
the fish is on my hook/' But Irawaru answered, 
" No, it is not, it is on mine/' 

Maui again called out very angrily, " Come, let 
go, I tell you it is on mine/' 

Irawaru then slacked out his line, and let Maui 
pull in the fish ; and as soon as he had hauled it 
into the canoe, Maui found that Irawaru was right, 
and that the fish was on his hook; when Irawaru 
saw this too, he called out, " Come now, let go 
my line and hook." Maui answered him, " Cannot 
you wait a minute, until I take the hook out of 
the fish." 

As soon as he got the hook out of the fish's 
mouth, he looked at it, and saw that it was barbed ; 
Maui, who was already exceedingly wrath with 
his brother-in-law, on observing this, thought he had 
no chance with his barbless hook of catching as 
many fish as his brother-in-law, so he said, " Don't 
you think we had better go on shore now ?" Ira- 
waru answered, " Yery well, let us return to the 
land again." 

So they paddled back towards the land, and 

D 2 



52 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



when they reached it, and were going to haul the 
canoe up on to the beach, Maui said to his brother-in- 
law, " Do you get under the out-rigger of the canoe, 
and lift it up with your back f so he got under it, 
and as soon as he had done so, Maui jumped on it, 
and pressed the whole weight of the canoe down 
upon him, and almost killed Irawaru. 

When he was on the point of death, Maui tram- 
pled on his body, and lengthened his back bone, 
and by his enchantments drew it out into the form 
of a tail, and he transformed Irawaru into a dog, 
and fed him with dung.* 

As soon as he had done this, Maui went back to 

* This quarel of Maui with his brother-in-law, Irawaru, is some- 
times narrated in this way : — 

Maui and his brother-in-law had been paying a visit to the peo- 
ple of a village not very distant from where they lived; when they 
were about to return home again, Maui asked his brother-in-law to 
carry a little provision for them both upon their short journey, but 
Irawaru answered surlily — 

" What should I carry any provision for, indeed ? why I have 
just had an excellent meal they then started, and Maui, who was 
very angry, by his enchantments drew out the earth as they pro- 
ceeded, so as to lengthen exceedingly the road they had to traverse; 
at last, being both overcome by hunger and fatigue, they sat 
down to rest, and Maui, who knew what his intentions were before 
they started, and had brought provisions with him, eat a good meal, 
but gave none to bis brother-in-law. He then, to throw Irawaru off 
his guard, asked him to clean and dress his hair for him, and laid 
his head on his lap for that purpose ; when his own was finished 
he offered to do the same for Irawaru, who suspecting no harm laid 
his head on Maui's lap, who threw him into an enchanted sleep, 
and then by his enchantments changed him into a dog. 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



53 



his place of abode, just as if nothing unusual had 
taken place, and his young sister, who was watch- 
ing for the return of her husband, as soon as she 
saw Maui coming, ran to him and asked him, say- 
ing, "Maui, where is your brother-in-law?" Maui 
answered, " I left him at the canoe/' 

But his young sister said, "Why did not you 
both come home together/' and Maui answered, 
" He desired me to tell you that he wanted you to 
go down to the beach to help him carry up the fish ; 
you had better go therefore, and if you do not see 
him, just call out, and if he does not answer you, 
why then call out to him in this way, Mo-i, mo-i, 
mo-i." 

Upon learning this, Hinauri hurried down to the 
beach as fast as she could, and not seeing her hus- 
band, she went about calling out his name, but no 
answer was made to her ; she then called out as Maui 
had told her, "Mo-i, mo-i, mo-i, mo-oi;" then Irawaru, 
who was running about in the bushes near there, 
in the form of a dog, at once recognised the voice 
of Hinauri, and answered, " Ao ! ao ! ao ! ao-ao-o !" 
howling like a dog, and he followed her back to the 
village, frisking along and wagging his tail with 
pleasure at seeing her ; and from him sprang all 
dogs, so that he is regarded as their progenitor, 
and all New Zealanders still call their dogs to then 
by the words, " Mo-i, mo-i, mo-i/' 



54 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Hinauri, when she saw that her husband had 
been changed into a dog, was quite distracted with 
grief, and wept bitterly the whole way as she went 
back to the village, and as soon as ever she got 
into her house, she caught up an enchanted girdle 
which she had, and ran back to the sea with it, 
determined to destroy herself, by throwing herself 
into the ocean, so that the dragons and monsters 
of the deep might devour her ; when she reached 
the sea-shore, she sat down upon the rocks at the 
ocean's very edge, and as she sat there she first 
lamented aloud her cruel fate, and repeated an 
incantation, and then threw herself into the sea, 
and the tide swept her off from the shore. 

Maui now felt it necessary to leave the village 
where Irawaru had lived, so he returned to his 
parents, and when he had been with them for some 
time, his father said to him one day, " Oh, my son, 
I have heard from your mother and others that you 
are very valiant, and that you have succeeded in all 
feats that you have undertaken in your own coun- 
try, whether they were small or great ; but now 
that you have arrived in your father's country, you 
will, perhaps, at last be overcome/' 

Then Maui asked him, " What do you mean, what 
things are there that I can be vanquished by?" 
And his father answered him, " By your great an- 
cestress, by Hine-nui-te-po, who, if you look, you 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



55 



may see flashing, and as it were, opening and shut- 
ting there, where the horizon meets the sky/' And 
Maui replied, " Lay aside such idle thoughts, and 
let us both fearlessly seek whether men are to die 
or live for ever." And his father said, " My child, 
there has been an ill omen for us ; when I was bap- 
tizing you, I omitted a portion of the fitting 
prayers, and that I know will be the cause of your 
perishing/' 

Then Maui asked his father, " What is my an- 
cestress Hiae-nui-te-po like V and he answered, 
" What you see yonder shining so brightly red are 
her eyes, and her teeth are as sharp and hard as 
pieces of volcanic glass ; her body is like that of a 
man, and as for the pupils of her eyes, they are 
jasper; and her hair is like the tangles of long sea- 
weed, and her mouth is like that of a barracouta." 
Then his son answered him, "Do you think her 
strength is as great as that of Tama-nui-te-Ra, who 
consumes man, and the earth, and the very waters, 
by the fierceness of his heat ? was not the world 
formerly saved alive by the speed with which he 
travelled? if he had then, in the days of his full, 
strength and power, gone as slowly as he does now, 
not a remnant of mankind would have been left 
living upon the earth, nor, indeed, would anything 
else have survived. But I laid hold of Tama-nui- 
te-Ra, and now he goes slowly, for I smote him 



56 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



again and again, so that he is now feeble, and 
long in travelling his course, and he now gives but 
very little heat, having been weakened by the 
blows of my enchanted weapon ; I then, too, split 
him open in many places, and from the wounds so 
made, many rays now issue forth, and spread in all 
directions. So, also, I found the sea much larger 
than the earth, but by the power of the last born 
of your children, part of the earth was drawn up 
again, and dry land came forth/' And his father 
answered him, " That is all very true, 0, my last 
born, and the strength of my old age ; well, then, 
be bold, go and visit your great ancestress who 
flashes so fiercely there, where the edge of the 
horizon meets the sky." 

Hardly was this conversation concluded with his 
father, when the young hero went forth to look for 
companions to accompany him upon this enterprise: 
and so there came to him for companions, the small 
robin, and the large robin, and the thrush, and the 
yellow-hammer, and every kind of little bird, and 
the water -wagtail, and these all assembled together, 
and they all started with Maui in the evening, and 
arrived at the dwelling of Hine-nui-te-po, and 
found her fast asleep. 

Then Maui addressed them all, and said, " My 
little friends, now if you see me creep into this old 
chieftainess, do not laugh at what you see, Nay, 



THE LEGEND OF MAUI. 



57 



nay, do not I pray you, but when I have got alto- 
gether inside her, and just as I am coming out of 
her mouth, then you may shout with laughter if 
you please/' And his little friends, who were 
frightened at what they saw, replied, " Oh, sir, you 
will certainly be killed/' And he answered them, 
" If you burst out laughing at me as soon as I get 
inside her, you will wake her up, and she will cer- 
tainly kill me at once, but if you do not laugh 
until I am quite inside her, and am on the point 
of coming out of her mouth, I shall live, and Hine- 
nui-te-po will die." And his little friends an- 
swered, " Go on then, brave sir, but pray take 
good care of yourself/' 

Then the young hero started off, and twisted 
the strings of his weapon tight round his wrist, 
and went into the house, and stripped off his 
clothes, and the skin on his hips looked mottled 
and beautiful as that of a mackerel, from the tattoo 
marks, cut on it with the chisel of Uetonga, and he 
entered the old chieftainess. 

The little birds now screwed up their tiny 
cheeks, trying to suppress their laughter ; at last, 
the little Tiwakawaka could no longer keep it in, 
and laughed out loud, with its merry cheerful note ; 
this woke the old woman up, she opened her eyes, 
started up, and killed Maui. 

Thus died this Maui we have spoken of, but 

D 3 



58 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



before he died he had children, and sons were born 
to him ; some of his descendants yet live in Ha- 
waiki, some in Aotearoa (or in these islands) ; the 
greater part of his descendants remained in Ha- 
waiki, but a few of them came here to Aotearoa. 
According to the traditions of the Maori,* this 
was the cause of the introduction of death into 
the world (Hine-nui-te-po being the goddess of 
death : if Maui had passed safely through her, 
then no more human beings would have died, 
but death itself would have been destroyed), and 
we express it by saying, " The water-wagtail laugh- 
ing at Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga made Hine-nui-te-po 
squeeze him to death/' And we have this proverb, 
" Men make heirs, but death carries them off." 

Thus end the deeds of the son of Makeatutara, 
and of Taranga, and the deeds of the sons of Rangi- 
nui, and of Papa-tu-a-N uku ; this is the narrative 
about the generations of the ancestors of the in- 
habitants of New Zealand, and therefore, we the 
people of that country, preserve closely these tradi- 
tions of old times, as a thing to be taught to the 
generations that come after us, so we repeat them 
in our prayers, and whenever we relate the deeds 
of the ancestors from whom each family is de- 
scended, and upon other similar occasions. 



* Inhabitants of New Zealand. 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKL 



Now quitting the deeds of Maui, let those of Ta- 
whaki be recounted. He was the son of Hema 
and Urutonga, and he had a younger brother 
named Karihi. Tawhaki having taken Hinepiri- 
piri as a wife, he went one day with his brothers- 
in-law to fish, from a flat reef of rocks which ran 
far out into the sea ; he had four brothers-in-law, 
two of these when tired of fishing returned towards 
their village, and he went with them ; when they 
drew near the village, they attempted to murder 
him, and thinking they had slain him, buried him ; 
they then went on their way to the village, and 
when they reached it, their young sister said to 
them, " Why, where is your brother-in-law ? " and 
they replied, "Oh, they're all fishing/' So the 
young wife waited until the other two brothers 
came back, and when they reached the village they 
were questioned by their young sister, who asked, 
"Where is your brother-in-law?" and the two who 
had last arrived, answered her, "Why, the others 
all went home together long since." So the young 
wife suspected that they had killed her husband, 



60 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and ran off at once to search for him ; and she 
found where he had been buried, and on examining 
him ascertained that he had only been insensible, 
and was not quite dead ; then with great difficulty 
she got him upon her back, and carried him home 
to their house, and carefully washed his wounds, 
and staunched the bleeding. 

Tawhaki, when he had a little recovered, said to 
her, "Fetch some wood, and light a fire for me;" 
and as his wife was going to do this, he said to 
her, " If you see any tall tree growing near you, 
fell it, and bring that with you for the fire." His 
wife went, and saw a tree growing such as her hus- 
band spoke of ; so she felled it, and put it upon 
her shoulder and brought it along with her ; and 
when she reached the house, she put the whole tree 
upon the fire without chopping it into pieces ; and 
it was this circumstance that led her to give the 
name of Wahieroa (long-log-of-wood-for-the-fire) to 
their first son, for Tawhaki had told her to bring 
this log of wood home, and to call the child after 
it, that the duty of avenging his father's wrongs 
might often be recalled to his mind. 

As soon as Tawhaki had recovered from his 
wounds, he left the place where his faithless brothers- 
in-law lived, and went away taking all his own war- 
riors and their families with him, and built a for- 
tified village upon the top of a very lofty mountain, 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 



61 



where lie could easily protect himself ; and they 
dwelt there. Then he called aloud to the Gods, his 
ancestors, for revenge, and they let the floods of 
heaven descend, and the earth was overwhelmed by 
the waters and all human beings perished, and the 
name given to that event was, " The overwhelming 
of the Mataaho," and the whole of that race 
perished. 

When this feat was accomplished, Tawhaki and 
his younger brother next went to seek revenge for 
the death of their father. It was a different race 
who had carried off and slain the father of Ta- 
whaki ; the name of that race was the Ponaturi — the 
country they inhabited was underneath the waters, 
but they had a large house on the dry land to 
which they resorted to sleep at night ; the name of 
that large house was* " Manawa-Tane/' 

The Ponaturi had slain the father of Tawhaki 
and carried off his body, but his father's wife they 
had carried off alive and kept as a captive. Ta- 
whaki arid his younger brother went upon their way 
to seek out that people and to revenge themselves 
upon them. At length they reached a place from 
whence they could see the house called Manawa- 
Tane. At the time they arrived near the house there 
was no one there but their mother, who was sitting 
near the door ; but the bones of their father were 
hung up inside the house under its high sloping roof. 



62 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The whole tribe of the Ponaturi were at that time 
in their country under the waters, but at the ap- 
proach of night they would return to their house, 
to Manawa-Tane. 

Whilst Tawhaki and his younger brother Karihi 
were coining along still at a great distance from the 
house, Tawhaki began to repeat an incantation, 
and the bones of his father, Hema, felt the influence 
of this, and rattled loudly together where they hung 
under the roof of the house, for gladness, when they 
heard Tawhaki repeating his incantations as he 
came along, for they knew that the hour of revenge 
had now come. As the brothers drew nearer, their 
mother, Urutonga,, heard the voice of Tawhaki, and 
she wept for gladness in front of her children, who 
came repeating incantations upon their way. And 
when they reached at length the house, they wept 
over their mother, over old Urutonga. "When they 
had ended weeping, their mother said to them, 
" My children, hasten to return hence, or you will 
both certainly perish. The people who dwell here 
are a very fierce and savage race/' Karihi said to 
her, " How low will the sun have descended when 
those you speak of return home?" And she replied, 
" They will return here when the sun sinks beneath 
the ocean/' Then Karihi asked her, " What did 
they save you alive for?" And she answered, 
" They saved me alive that I might watch for the 



THE LEGEND OP TAWHAKT. 63 

rising of the dawn ; they make me ever sit watch- 
ing here at the door of the house, hence this people 
have named me 'Tatau,' or c the door ;' and they 
keep on throughout the night calling out to me, 
' Ho, Tatau, there ! is it dawn yet ? ' And then I 
call out in answer, ' No, no, it is deep night — it is 
lasting night — it is still night ; compose yourselves 
to sleep, sleep on/ " 

Karihi then said to his mother, " Cannot we 
hide ourselves somewhere here ? " 

Their mother answered, " You had better return ; 
you cannot hide yourselves here, the scent of you 
will be perceived by them/' 

" But/' said Karihi, " we will hide ourselves 
away in the thick thatch of the house/' 

Their mother, however, answered, " 'T is of no 
use, you cannot hide yourselves there/' 

All this time Tawhaki sat quite silent ; but 
Karihi said, " We will hide ourselves here, for we 
know incantations which will render us invisible 
to all/' 

On hearing this, their mother consented to their 
remaining, and attempting to avenge their father's 
death. So they climbed up to the ridge-pole of the 
house, upon the outside of the roof, and made holes 
in the thick layers of reeds which formed the thatch 
of the roof, and crept into them and covered them- 
selves up ; and their mother called to them, say- 
ing, " When it draws near dawn, come down again, 



64 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and stop up every chink in the house, so that no 
single ray of light may shine in." 

At length the day closed, and the sun sank 
below the horizon, and the whole of that strange 
tribe left the water in a body, and ascended to the 
dry land; and, according to their custom from time 
immemorial, they sent one of their number in front 
of them, that he might carefully examine the road, 
and see that there were no hidden foes lying in 
wait for them either on the way or in their house. 
As soon as this scout arrived at the threshold of 
the house, he perceived the scent of Tawhaki and 
Karihi ; so he lifted up his nose and turned sniffing 
all round the inside of the house. As he turned 
about, he was on the point of discovering that 
strangers were hidden there, when the rest of the 
tribe (whom long security had made careless) came 
hurrying on, and crowding into the house in 
thousands, so that from the denseness of the 
crowd the scent of the strange men was quite lost. 
The Ponaturi then stowed themselves away in the 
house until it was entirely filled up with them, and 
by degrees they arranged themselves in convenient 
places, and at length all fell fast asleep. 

At midnight Tawhaki and Karihi stole down 
from the roof of the house, and found that their 
mother had crept out of the door to meet them, so 
they sat at the doorway whispering together. 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 



65 



Karihi then asked his mother, " Which is the best 
way for us to destroy these people who are sleeping 
here?" And their mother answered, "You had 
better let the sun kill them, its rays will destroy 
them." 

Having said this, Tatau crept into the house 
again ; presently an old man of the Ponaturi 
called out to her, " Ho, Tatau,^Tatau, there ; is it 
dawn yet?" And she [answered, "No, no, it is 
deep night — it is lasting night ; 't is still night ; 
sleep soundly, sleep on." 

When it was very near dawn, Tatau whispered 
to her children, who were still sitting just outside 
the door of the house, " See that every chink in the 
doorway and window is stopped, so that not a 
ray of light can penetrate here." 

Presently another old man of the Ponaturi called 
out again, " Ho, Tatau there, is not it near dawn 
yet?" And she answered, "No, no, it is night; 
it is lasting night ; 't is still night ; sleep soundly, 
sleep on." 

This was the second time that Tatau had thus 
called out to them. 

At last dawn had broken — at last the sun had 
shone brightly upon the earth, and rose high in the 
heavens ; and the old man again called out, " Ho, 
Tatau there ; is not it dawn yet V And she 
answered, " Yes." And then she called out to her 



66 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



children, " Be quick, pull out the things with which 
you have stopped up the window and the door." 

" So they pulled them out, and the bright rays of 
the sun came streaming into the house, and the 
whole of the Ponaturi perished before the light ; 
they perished not by the hand of man, but withered 
before the sun's rays.* 

When the Ponaturi had been all destroyed, 
Tawhaki and Karihi carefully took down their 
father's bones from the roof of the house, and 
burnt them with fire, and together with the bodies 
of all those who were in the house, who had 
perished, scorched by the bright rays of the sun ; 
they then returned again to their own country, 
taking with them their mother, and carefully car- 
rying the bones of their father. 

The fame of Tawhaki's courage in thus destroy- 
ing the race of Ponaturi, and a report also of his 
manly beauty, chanced to reach the ears of a young 
maiden of the heavenly race who live above in the 
skies; so one night she descended from the heavens 
to visit Tawhaki, and to judge for herself, whether 
these reports were true. She found him lying 
sound asleep, and after gazing on him for some time, 
she stole to his side and laid herself down by him. 

* The New Zealanders say that the " Kanae," or salmon, had 
come on shore with the Ponaturi, and escaped out of the house by 
its power of leaping, gaining the water again by successive springs. 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKL 6T 

He, when disturbed by her, thought that it was only 
some female of this lower world, and slept again ; 
but before dawn the young girl stole away again 
from his side, and ascended once more to the 
heavens. In the early morning Tawhaki awoke 
and felt all over his sleeping place with both his 
hands, but in vain, he could nowhere find the 
young girl. 

From that time Tango-tango,* the girl of the 
heavenly race, stole every night to the side of 
Tawhaki, and lo, in the morning she was gone, 
until she found that she had conceived a child, who 
was afterwards named Arahuta ; then full of love- 
for Tawhaki, she disclosed herself fully to him and 
lived constantly in this world with him, deserting, 
for his sake, her friends above ; and he discovered 
that she who had so loved him belonged to the race 
whose home is in the heavens. 

Whilst thus living with him, this girl of the 
heavenly race, his second wife, said to him, " Oh, 
Tawhaki, if our baby so shortly now to be born, 
should prove a son, I will wash the little thing be- 
fore it is baptized ; but if it should be a little girl 
then you shall wash it." When the time came 
Tango-tango had a little girl, and before it was 
baptized Tawhaki took it to a spring to wash it, 
and afterwards held it away from him as if it 
* According to some traditions her name was Hapai. 



68 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



smelt badly, and said, " Faugh, how badly the 
little thing smells." Then Tango-tango, when she 
heard this said of her own dear little baby, began 
to sob and cry bitterly, and at last rose up from 
her place with her child, and began to take flight 
towards the sky, but she paused for one minute 
with one foot resting upon the carved figure at the 
end of the ridge-pole of the house above the door. 
Then Tawhaki rushed forward, and springing up 
tried to catch hold of his young wife, but missing 
her, he entreatingly besought her, " Mother of my 
child, oh return once more to me ?" But she in 
reply called down to him, " No, no, I shall now 
never return to you again." 

Tawhaki once more called up to her, " At least, 
then, leave me some one remembrance of you." 
Then his young wife called down to him, " These 
are my parting words of remembrance to you — take 
care that you lay not hold with your hands of the 
loose root of the creeper, which dropping from 
aloft sways to and fro in the air ; but rather lay 
fast hold on that which hanging down from on 
high has again struck its fibres into the earth." 
Then she floated up into the air, and vanished from 
his sight. 

Tawhaki remained plunged in grief, for his heart 
was torn by regrets for his wife and his little girl. 
One moon had waned after her departure, when 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 69 

Tawhaki, unable longer to endure such sufferings, 
called out to his younger brother, to Karihi, saying, 
" Oh, brother, shall we go and search for my little 
girl?" And Karihi consented, saying, "Yes, let 
us go." So they departed, taking two slaves with 
them as companions for their journey. 

When they reached the pathway along which 
they intended to travel, Tawhaki said to the two 
slaves who were accompanying himself and his 
brother, "You being unclean or unconsecrated per- 
sons, must be careful when we come to the place 
where the road passes the fortress of Tongameha, 
not to look up at it for it is enchanted, and some 
evil will befall you if you do." They then went 
along the road, and when they came to the place 
mentioned by Tawhaki, one of the slaves looked up 
at the fortress, and his eye was immediately torn 
out by the magical arts of Tongameha, and he 
perished. Tawhaki and Karihi then went upon 
the road accompanied by only one slave. They at 
last reached the spot where the ends of the tendrils 
which hung down from heaven reached the earth, and 
they there found an old ancestress of theirs who 
was quite blind, and whose name was Matakerepo. 
She was appointed to take care of the tendrils, and 
she sat at the place where they touched the earth, 
and held the ends of one of them in her hands. 

This old lady was at the moment employed in 



70 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

\ 

counting some taro roots, which she was about to 
have cooked, and as she was blind she was not 
aware of the strangers who stole quietly and silently 
up to her. There were ten taro roots lying in a 
heap before her. She began to count them, one, 
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Just 
at this moment Tawhaki quietly slipped away the 
tenth, the old lady felt about everywhere for it, 
but she could not find it. She thought she must 
have made some mistake, and so began to count 
her taro over again very carefully. One, two, 
three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Just then 
Tawhaki had slipped away the ninth. She was 
now quite surprised, so she counted them over 
again quite slowly, one, two, three, four, five, six, 
seven, eight ; and as she could not find the two 
that were missing, she at last guessed that some- 
body was playing a trick upon her, so she pulled 
her weapon out, which she always sat upon to 
keep it safe, and standing up turned round, feeling 
about her as she moved, to try if she could find 
Tawhaki and Karihi ; but they very gently stooped 
down to the ground and lay close there, so that 
her weapon passed over them, and she could not 
feel anybody ; when she had thus swept her weapon 
all round her, she sat down and put it under her 
again. Karihi then struck her a blow upon the 
face, and she, quite frightened, threw up her hands 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 



71 



to her face, pressing them on the place where she 
had been struck, and crying out, " Oh ! who did 
that ? " Tawhaki then touched both her eyes, and, 
lo, she was at once restored to sight, and saw 
quite plainly, and she knew her grandchildren and 
wept over them. 

When the old lady had finished weeping over 
them, she asked, " Where are you going to ? " 
And Tawhaki answered, " I go to seek my little 
girl." She replied, "But where is she?" He 
answered, "Above there, in the skies." Then she 
replied, " But what made her go to the skies ?" 
And Tawhaki answered, " Her mother came from 
heaven, She was the daughter of Watitiri-mata-ka- 
taka. The old lady then pointed to the tendrils, 
and said to them, " Up there, then, lies your road ; 
but do not begin the ascent so late in the day, 
wait until to-morrow, for the morning, and then 
commence to climb up." He consented to follow 
this good advice, and called out to his slave, 
" Cook some food for us." The slave began at 
once to cook food, and when it was dressed, they 
all partook of it and slept there that night. 

At the first peep of dawn Tawhaki called out to 
his slave, " Cook some food for us, that we may 
have strength to undergo the fatigues of this great 
journey and when their meal was finished, Ta- 
whaki took his slave, and presented him to Mata- 



72 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY 



kerepo,' as an acknowledgment for her great kind 
ness to them. 

His old ancestress then called out to him, as he 
was starting, <r There lies the ascent before you, 
lay fast hold of the tendrils with your hands, and 
climb on ; but when you get midway between 
heaven and earth, take care not to look down upon 
this lower world again, lest you become charmed 
aud giddy, and Ml down. Take care, also, that 
you do not by mistake lay hold of a tendril which 
swings loose ; but rather lay hold of one which 
hanging down from above, has again firmly struck 
root into the earth." 

Just at that moment Karihi made a spring at 
the tendrils to catch them, and by mistake caught 
hold of a loose one, and away he swung to the 
very edge of the horizon, but a blast of wind 
blew forth from thence, and drove him back to the 
other side of the skies ; on reaching that point, 
another strong land wind swept him right up 
heavenwards, and down he was blown again by 
the currents of air from above : then just as he 
reached near the earth again, Tawhaki called out, 
" Now, my brother, loose your hands ; now is the 
time!" and he did so, and, lo, he stood upon the 
earth once more ; and the two brothers wept toge- 
ther over Karihi's narrow escape from destruction. 
And when they had ceased lamenting, Tawhaki, 




THE SWIXG. 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 



73 



who was alarmed lest any disaster should overtake 
his younger brother, said to him, "It is my desire 
that you should return home, to take care of our 
families and our dependants/' Thereupon Karihi 
at once returned to the village of their tribe, as his 
eldest brother directed him. 

Tawhald now began to climb the ascent to 
heaven, and his old ancestress, Matakerepo, called 
out to him as he went up, " Hold fast, my child ; 
let your hands hold tight." And Tawhaki made 
use of, and kept on repeating, a powerful incanta- 
tion as he climbed up to the heavens, to preserve 
him from the dangers of that difficult and terrible 
road. 

At length he reached the heavens, and pulled 
himself up into them, and then by enchantments 
he disguised himself, and changed his handsome 
and noble appearance, and assumed the likeness of 
a very ugly old man, and he followed the road he 
had at first struck upon, and entered a dense forest 
into which it ran, and still followed it until he 
came to a place in the forest where his brothers-in- 
law, with a party of their people, were hewing 
canoes from the trunks of trees ; and they saw him, 
and little thinking who he was, called out, " Here s 
an old fellow will make a nice slave for us " but 
Tawhaki went quietly on, and when he reached 

E 



74 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



them he sat down with the people who were work- 
ing at the canoes. 

It now drew near evening, and his brothers-in- 
law finished their work, and called out to him, 
" Ho ! old fellow, there ! you just carry these 
heavy axes home for us, will you ?"* He at once 
consented to do this, and they gave him the axes. 
The old man then said to them, " You go on in 
front, do not mind, I am old and heavy laden, I 
cannot travel fast/' So they started off, the old 
man following slowly behind. When his brothers- 
in-law and their people were all out of sight, he 
turned back to the canoe, and taking an axe just 
adzed the canoe rapidly along from the bow to the 
stern, and lo, one side of the canoe was finished. 
Then he took the adze again, and ran it rapidly 
along the other side of the canoe, from the bow 
to the stern, and lo, that side also was beautifully 
finished. 

He then walked quietly along the road again, 
like an old man, carrying the axes with him, and 
went on for some time without seeing anything ; 
but when he drew near the village, he found two 

* The European reader cannot at all enter into the witty nature 
of this adventure in the estimation of a New Zealander ; the idea 
of a sacred chief of high rank being by mistake treated as a 
common slave, conveys impressions to their minds of which we can 
form no accurate notion. 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 



75 



women from the village in the forest gathering 
firewood, and as soon as they saw him, one of them 
observed to her companion, " I say, here is a 
curions looking old fellow, is he not?" and her 
companion exclaimed, " He shall be our slave ; " 
to which the first answered, " Make him carry the 
firewood for ns, then." So they took Tawhaki, and 
laid a load of firewood upon his back, and made 
him carry that as well as the axes, so was this 
mighty chief treated as a slave, even by female 
slaves. 

When they all reached the village, the two 
women called out, " We Ve caught an old man 
for a slave." Then Tangotango exclaimed in reply, 
" That 's right, bring him along with you, then ; 
he 11 do for all of us." Little did his wife Tango- 
tango think that the slave they were so insult- 
ing, and whom she was talking about in such a 
way, was her own husband Tawhaki. 

When Tawhaki saw Tangotango sitting at a 
fire-place near the upper end of the house with 
their little girl, he went straight up to the place, 
and all the persons present tried to stop him, 
calling out, " Ho ! ho ! take care what you are 
doing ; do not go there ; you will become tapued 
from sitting near Tangotango." But the old man, 
without minding them, went rapidly straight on, 
and carried his load of firewood right up to the 

E 2 



76 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



very fire of Tangotango. Then they all said, 
" There, the old fellow is tapa ; it is his own 
fault/' But Tangotango had not the least idea 
that this was Tawhaki ; and yet there were her 
husband and herself seated, the one upon the one 
side, the other upon the opposite side of the very 
same fire. 

They all stopped in the house until the sun rose 
next morning ; then at daybreak his brothers-in-law 
called out to him, " Holloa, old man, you bring the 
axes along, do you hear." So the old man took 
up the axes, and started with them, and they 
all went off together to the forest, to work at dub- 
bing out their canoes. When they reached them, 
and the brothers-in-law saw the canoe which 
Tawhaki had worked at, they looked at it with 
astonishment, saying, " Why, the canoe is not at all 
as we left it ; who can have been working at it ¥' 
At last, when their wonder was somewhat abated, 
they all sat down, and set to work again to dub 
out another canoe, and worked until evening, 
when they again called out to the old man as 
on the previous one, " Holloa, old fellow, come 
here, and carry the axes back to the village again/' 
As before, he said, "Yes/' and when they started 
he remained behind, and after the others were all 
out of sight he took an axe, and began again to 
adze away at the canoe they had been working at \ 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 



77 



and having finished his work he returned again 
to the village, and once more walked straight up 
to the fire of Tango tango, arid remained there 
until the sun rose upon the following morning. 

When they were all going at early dawn to 
work at their canoes as usual, they again called 
out to Tawhaki, " Holloa, old man, just bring these 
axes along with you;" and the old man went 
patiently and silently along with them, carrying 
the axes on his shoulder. "When they reached the 
canoes they were about to work at, the brothers- 
in-law were quite astonished on seeing it, and 
shouted out, "Why, here again, this canoe, too, is 
not at all as it was when we left it ; who can have 
been at work at it V Having wondered at this 
for some time, they at length sat down and set 
to again to dub out another canoe, and laboured 
away until evening, when a thought came into their 
minds that they would hide themselves in the 
forest, and wait to see who it was came every 
evening to work at their canoe; and Tawhaki 
overheard them arranging this plan. 

They therefore started as if they were going 
home, and when they had got a little way they 
turned off the path on one side, and hid themselves 
in the thick clumps of bushes, in a place from 
whence they could see the canoes. Then Tawhaki, 
going a little way back into the forest, stripped off 



78 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



his old cloaks, and threw them on one side, and 
then repeating the necessary incantations he put 
off his disguise, and took again his own appearance, 
and made himself look noble and handsome, and 
commenced his work at the canoe. Then his bro- 
thers-in-law, when they saw him so employed, said 
one to another, " Ah, that must be the old man 
whom we made a slave of who is working away at 
our canoe but again they called to one another 
and said, " Come here, come here, just watch, why 
he is not in the least like that old man/' Then 
they said amongst themselves, " This must be a 
demi-god and, without showing themselves to 
him, they ran off to the village, and as soon as they 
reached it they asked their sister Tangotango to 
describe her husband for them ; and she described 
his appearance as well as she could, representing 
him just like the man they had seen : and they 
said to her, " Yes, that must be he ; he is exactly 
like him you have described to us/' Their sister 
replied, " Then that chief must certainly be your 
brother-in-law/' 

Just at this moment Tawhaki reappeared at 
the village, having again disguised himself, and 
changed his appearance into that of an ugly 
old man. But Tangotango immediately questioned 
him, saying, " Now tell me, who are you ? " Ta- 
whaki made no reply, but walked on straight to- 



THE LEGEND OF TAWHAKI. 79 



wards her. She asked him again, " Tell me, are 
you Tawhaki ? " He murmured " Humph " in 
assent, still walking on until he reached the side of 
his wife, and then he snatched up his little daugh- 
ter, and, holding her fast in his arms, pressed her 
to his heart. The persons present all rushed out 
of the court-yard of the house to the neighbouring 
court-yards, for the whole place was made tapu by 
Tawhaki, and murmurs of gratification and surprise 
arose from the people upon every side at the splen- 
dour of his appearance, for in the days when he 
had been amongst them as an old man his figure 
was very different from the resplendent aspect 
which he presented on this day. 

Then he retired to rest with his wife, and 
said to her, " I came here that our little daughter 
might be made to undergo the ceremonies usual for 
the children of nobles, to secure them good fortune 
and happiness in this life ; " and Tangotango con- 
sented. 

When in the morning the sun arose, they broke 
out an opening through the end of the house oppo- 
site to the door, that the little girl's rank might be 
seen by her being carried out that way instead of 
through the usual entrance to the house ; and they 
repeated the prescribed prayers when she was car- 
ried through the wall out of the house. 



80 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The prayers and incantations being finished, 
lightnings flashed from the arm-pits of Tawhaki ; 
then they carried the little girl to the water, and 
plunged her into it, and repeated a baptismal incan- 
tation over her. 

* Tawhaki is said to still dwell in the skies, and is worshipped 
as a god, and thunder and lightning are said to be caused by his 
footsteps when he moves. 



THE LEGEND OF RTJPE. 



HIS ASCENT INTO HEAVEN. ' 

We left Hinauri floating out into the ocean ;* we 
now return to her adventures : for many months 
she floated through the sea, and was at last thrown 
up by the surf on the beach at a place named 
Wairarawa ; she was there found, lying as if dead, 
upon the sandy shore, by two brothers named Ihu- 
atamai and Ihuwareware ; her body was in many 
parts overgrown with seaweed and barnacles, from 
the length of time she had been in the water, but 
they could still see some traces of her beauty, and 
pitying the young girl, they lifted her up in their 
arms, and carried her home to their house, and laid 
her down carefully by the side of a fire, and 
scraped off very gently the seaweed and barnacles 
from her body, and thus by degrees restored her. 

When she had quite recovered, Ihuatamai and 
Ihuwareware looked upon her with pleasure, and 
took her as a wife between them both ; they then 
asked her to tell them who she was, and what was 
her name ; this she did not disclose to them, but 
* See page 54. 

E 3 



82 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



she changed her name, and called herself Ihungaru- 
paea, or the Stranded-log-of-timber. 

After she had lived with these two brothers for 
a long time, Ilmwareware went to pay a visit to 
his superior chief, Tinirau, and to relate the ad- 
ventures which had happened ; and when Tinirau 
heard all that had taken place, he went to bring 
away the young stranger as a wife for himself, and 
she was given up to him ; but before she was so 
given to him, she had conceived a child by Ihu- 
atamai, and when she went to live with Tinirau it 
was near the time when the child should be born. 

Tinirau took her home with him to his residence 
on an island called Motu-tapu : he had two other 
wives living there — they were the daughters of 
Mangamanga-i-atua., and their names were Hara- 
taunga and Horotata. Now, when these two wo- 
men saw the young stranger coming along in their 
husband's company, as if she was his wife, they 
could not endure it, and they abused Hinauri on 
account of her conduct with their husband ; at last 
they proceeded so far as to attempt to strike her, 
and to kill her, and they cursed her bitterly. When 
they treated her in this manner the heart of Hin- 
auri became gloomy with grief and mortification, 
so she began to utter incantations against them, 
and repeated one so powerful that hardly had 
she finished it when the two women fell flat 



kupe's ascent into heaven. 83 



on the ground with the soles of their feet pro- 
jecting upwards, and lay quite dead upon the 
earth, and her husband was thus left free for her 
alone. 

All this time Hinauri was lost to her friends 
and home, and her young brother Mauimua, after- 
wards called Rupe, could do nothing but think of 
her ; and excessive love for his sister, and sorrow 
at her departure, so harassed him, that he said he 
could no longer remain at rest, but that he must 
go and seek for his sister. 

So he departed upon this undertaking, and visited 
every place he could think of without missing 
one of them, yet could he nowhere find his sister ; 
at last, Rupe thought that he would ascend to the 
heavens to consult his great ancestor Rehua, who 
dwelt there at a place named Te Putahi-nui-o- 
Rehua, and in fulfilment of this design he began 
his ascent to the heavenly regions. 

Rupe continued his ascent, seeking everywhere 
hastily for Rehua ; at last, he reached a place where 
people were dwelling, and when he saw them, he 
spoke to them, saying, " Are the heavens above 
this inhabited?" and the people dwelling there 
answered him, "They are inhabited/' And he 
again asked them, "Can I reach those heavens?" 
and they replied, "You cannot reach them, the 



84 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



heavens above these are those the boundaries of 
which were fixed by Tane." 

But Eupe forced a way up through those 
heavens, and got above them, and found an in- 
habited place ; and he asked the inhabitants of it, 
saying, "Are the heavens above these inhabited?" 
and the people answered him, " They are inha- 
bited." And he again asked, " Do you think I 
can reach them?" and they replied, "No, you will 
not be able to reach them, those heavens were fixed 
there by Tane." 

Rupe, however, forced a way through those 
heavens too, and thus he continued to do until he 
reached the tenth heaven, and there he found the 
abode of Rehua. When Rehua saw a stranger 
approaching, he went forward and gave him the 
usual welcome, lamenting over him ; Rehua made 
his lamentation without knowing who the stranger 
was, but Rupe in his lament made use of prayers 
by which he enabled Rehua to guess who he was. 

When they had each ended their lamentation, 
Rehua called to his servants, " Light a fire, and 
get everything ready for cooking food." The 
slaves soon made the fire burn up brightly, and 
brought hollow calabashes, all ready to have food 
placed in them, and laid them down before Rehua. 
All this time Rupe was wondering whence the food 



kupe's ascent into heaven. 



85 



was to come from with which the calabashes, which 
the slaves had brought, were to be filled ; but pre- 
sently he observed that Rehua was slowly loosen- 
ing the thick bands which enveloped his locks 
around and upon the top of his head ; and when 
his long locks all floated loosely, he shook the 
dense masses of his hair, and forth from them came 
flying flocks of the Tui birds, which had been 
nestling there, feeding upon insects ; and as they 
flew forth, the slaves caught and killed them, and 
filled the calabashes with them, and took them 
to the fire, and put them on to cook, and when 
they were done, they carried them and laid them 
before Rupe as a present, and then placed them 
beside him that he might eat, and Rehua re- 
quested him to eat food, but Rupe answered him, 
" Nay, but I cannot eat this food ; I saw these 
birds loosened and take wing from thy locks ; 
who would dare to eat birds that had fed upon 
insects in thy sacred head?" For the reasons 
he thus stated, Rupe feared that man of ancient 
days, and the calabashes still stood near him un- 
touched. 

At last, Rupe ventured to ask Rehua, saying, 
" Rehua, has a confused murmur of voices from 
the world below reached you upon any subject re- 
garding which I am interested V And Rehua an- 
swered him, "Yes, such a murmuring of distant 



86 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



voices has reached me from the island of Motu-tapu 
in the world below these/' 

When Kupe heard this, he immediately by his 
enchantments changed himself into a pigeon, and 
took flight downwards towards the island of 
Motu-tapu ; on, on he flew, until he reached the 
island, and the dwelling of Tinirau, and then he 
alighted right upon the window-sill of his house. 
Some of Tinirau s people saw him, and exclaimed, 
" Ha ! ha ! there 's a bird, there 's a bird whilst 
some called out, " Make haste, spear him, spear 
him;" and one threw a spear at him, but he 
turned it aside with his bill, and it passed on one 
side of him, and struck the piece of wood on 
which he was sitting, and the spear was broken ; 
then they saw that it was no use to try to spear 
the bird, so they made a noose, and endeavoured 
to slip it gently over his head, but he turned his 
head on one side, and they found that they could not 
snare him. His young sister now suspected some- 
thing, so she said to the people who were trying to 
kill or snare the bird, " Leave the bird quiet for a 
minute until I look at it \" and when she had 
looked well at it, she knew that it was her brother, 
so she asked him, saying, "What is the cause 
which has made you thus come here V and the 
pigeon immediately began to open and shut its 
little bill, as if it was trying to speak. His young 



rupe's ascent into heaven. 87 

sister now called out to Tinirau, " Oh, husband, 
here is your brother-in-law ; " and her husband said 
in reply, "What is his name?" and she answered, 
" It is my brother Rupe/' It happened that upon 
this very day, Hinauri's little child was born, then 
Rupe repeated this form of greeting to his sister, 
the name of which is Toetoetu : — 

" Hinauri, 
Hinauri is the sister, 
And Rupe is her brother, 
But how came he here 1 
Came he by travelling on the earth, 
Or came he through the air 1 
Let your path be through the air." 

As soon as Rupe had ceased his lamentation of 
welcome to his sister, she commenced hers, and 
answered him, saying, — 

" Rupe is the brother, 
And Hina is his young sister, 
But how came he here ? 
Came he by travelling on the earth, 
Or came he through the air ] 
Let your path be now upwards through the air 
To Rehua." 

Hardly had his young sister finished repeating 
this poem, before Rupe had caught her up with her 
new-born baby : in a moment they were gone. 
Thus the brother and sister departed together, with 
the infant, carrying with them the placenta to 
bury it with the usual rites ; and they ascended up 



88 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



to Rehua, and as they passed through the air, the 
placenta was accidentally dropped, and falling into 
the sea, was devoured by a shark, and this cir- 
cumstance was what caused the multitude of 
large eggs which are now found in the inside of 
the shark. 

At length the brother and sister arrived at the 
dwelling place of Rehua, which was called Te Pu- 
tahi-nui-o- Rehua. The old man was unable to 
keep his court-yard clean for himself, and his 
people neglected to do so from idleness ; thus it was 
left in a very filthy state. Rupe, who was dis- 
pleased at seeing this, one day said to Rehua, " Oh, 
Rehua, they leave this court-yard of yours in a 
very filthy state;" and then he added, "Your 
people are such a set of lazy rogues, that if every 
mess of dirt was a lizard, I doubt if they could 
even take the trouble to touch its tail to make it 
run away \" and this saying passed into a proverb. 

At last, Rupe thought that he could clean and 
beautify, in some respects, Rehua's dwelling for him, 
so he made two wooden shovels for his work, one 
of which he called Tahitahia, and the other Rake- 
rakea, and with them he quite cleansed and puri- 
fied Rehua's court-yard. He then added a build- 
ing to Rehua's dwelling, but fixing one of the 
beams of it badly, Rehua s son, Kaitaugata, was 
one day killed from hanging on to this beam, 



kupe's ascent into heaven. 89 



which giving way and springing back, he was 
thrown down and died, and his blood running 
about over part of the heavens, stained them, and 
formed what we now call a ruddiness in the sky ; 
when, therefore, a red and ruddy tinge is seen in 
the heavens, men say, " Ah ! Kaitangata stained 
the heavens with his blood/' 

Rupe's first name was Maui-mua ; it was after he 
was transformed into a bird that he took the name 
of Rupe. 

* The part of the tradition which relates to the death of Kai- 
tangata is considerably shortened in the translation, as not being 
likely to interest the European reader. 



THE LEGEND OF KAE'S THEFT OF 
THE WHALE. 

Soon after Tuhurulmru was born, Tinirau endea- 
voured to find a skilful magician, who might per- 
form the necessary enchantments and incantations 
to render the child a fortunate and successful war- 
rior, and Kae was the name of the old magician, 
whom some of his friends brought to him for this 
purpose. In due time Kae arrived at the village 
where Tinirau lived, and he performed the proper 
enchantments with fitting ceremonies over the infant. 

When all these things had been rightly con- 
cluded, Tinirau gave a signal to a pet whale that 
he had tamed, to come on shore ; this whale's name 
was Tutunui. When it knew that its master wanted 
it, it left the ocean in which it was sporting about, 
and came to the shore, and its master laid hold of 
it, and cut a slice of its flesh off to make a feast 
for the old magician, and he cooked it, and gave a 
portion of it to Kae, who found it very savoury, 
and praised the dish very much. 

Shortly afterwards, Kae said it was necessary for 
him to return to his own village, which was named 
Te Tihi-o-Manono ; so Tinirau ordered a canoe to be 
got ready for him to take him back, but Kae made 



kae's theft of the whale. 91 

excuses, and said lie did not like to go back in the 
canoe, and remained where he was. This, however, 
was a mere trick upon his part, his real object 
being to get Tinirau to permit him to go back upon 
the whale, upon Tutunui, for he now knew how 
savoury the flesh of that fish was. 

At last Tinirau lent Tutunui to the old magician 
to carry him home, but he gave him very particular 
directions, telling him, " When you get so near the 
shore, that the fish touches the bottom, it will shake 
itself to let you know, and you must then, without 
any delay, jump off it upon the right side/' 

He then wished Kae farewell, and the old magi- 
cian started, and away went the whale through the 
water with him. 

When they came close to the shore at Kae's vil- 
lage, and the whale felt the bottom, it shook itself 
as a sign to Kae to jump off and wade ashore, but 
it was of no use ; the old magician stuck fast to 
the whale, and pressed it down against the bottom 
as hard as he could ; in vain the fish continued 
to shake itself ; Kae held on to it, and would not 
jump off, and in its struggles the blow-holes of 
Tutunui got stopped up with sand, and it died. 

Kae and his people then managed to drag up the 
body of Tutunui on shore, intending to feast upon 
it ; and this circumstance became afterwards the 
cause of a war against that tribe, who were called 
"The descendants of Poporokewa." When they 



92 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



had dragged Tutunui on shore, they cut its body 
up and cooked it in ovens, covering the flesh up 
with the fragrant leaves of the Koromiko before 
they heaped earth upon the ovens, and the fat of 
Tutunui adhered to the leaves of the Koromiko, and 
they continue greasy to this day, so that if Koromiko 
boughs are put upon the fire and become greasy, 
the proverb says — " There's some of the savouriness 
of Tutunui/' 

Tinirau continued anxiously to look for the re- 
turn of Tutunui, and when a long time had elapsed 
without its coming back again, he began to say to 
himself, " Well, I wonder where my whale can be 
stopping \" But when Kae and his people had 
cooked the flesh of the whale, and the ovens were 
opened, a savoury scent was wafted across the sea 
to Tinirau, and both he and his wife smelt it quite 
plainly, and then they knew very well that Kae 
had killed the pet which they had tamed for their 
little darling Tuhuruhuru, and that he had eaten it. 

Without any delay, Tinirau's people dragged 
down to the sea a large canoe which belonged to 
one of his wives, and forty women forthwith em- 
barked in it; none but women went, as this would 
be less likely to excite any suspicion in Kae that 
they had come with a hostile object; amongst them 
were Hine-i-te-iwaiwa, Raukatauri, Raukatamea, 
Itiiti, Rekareka, and Rua-hau-a-Tangaroa, and other 
females of note, whose names have not been pre- 



KAE'S THEFT OF THE WHALE. 93 

served ; just before the canoe started, Tinirau s 
youngest sister asked him, " What are the marks 
by which we shall know Kae ?" and he answered 
her, " Oh, you cannot mistake him, his teeth are 
uneven and all overlap one another." 

"Well, away they paddled, and in due time they 
arrived at the village of the old magician Kae, and 
his tribe all collected to see the strangers ; towards 
night, when it grew dark, a fire was lighted in 
the house of Kae, and a crowd collected inside it, 
until it was filled ; one side was quite occupied 
with the crowd of visitors, and the other side of 
the house with the people of Kae's tribe. The old 
magician himself sat at the foot of the main pillar 
which supported the roof of the house, and mats 
were laid down there for him to sleep on (but the 
strangers did not yet know which was Kae, for it 
did not accord with the Maori's rules of politeness 
to ask the names of the chiefs, it being supposed 
from their fame and greatness that they are known 
by everybody). 

In order to find out, which was Kae, Tinirau's 
people had arranged, that they would try by wit 
and fun to make everybody laugh, and when, the 
people opened their mouths, to watch which of them 
had uneven teeth that lapped across one another, 
and thus discover which was Kae. 

In order, therefore, to make them laugh, Rauka- 
tauri exhibited all her amusing tricks and games ; 



94 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



she made them sing and play upon the flute, and 
upon the putorino, and beat time with castanets 
of bone and wood whilst they sang ; and they 
played at mora, and the kind of ti in which many 
motions are made with the fingers and hands, and 
the kind of ti in which, whilst the players sing, 
they rapidly throw short sticks to one another, keep- 
ing time to the tune which they are singing ; and she 
played upon an instrument like a jewVharp for 
them, and made puppets dance, and made them all 
sing whilst they played with large whizgigs ; and 
after they had done all these things, the man they 
thought was Kae had never even once laughed. 

Then the party who had come from Tiniraus, 
all began to consult together, and to say what can 
we do to make that fellow laugh, and for a long 
time they thought of some plan by which they 
might take Kae in, and make him laugh ; at last 
they thought of one, which was, that they should 
all sing a droll comic song; so suddenly they all 
began to sing together, at the same time making 
most curious faces, and shaking their hands and 
arms in time to the tune. 

When they had ended their song, the old magi- 
cian could not help laughing out quite heartily, 
and those who were watching him closely at once 
recognised him, for there they saw pieces of the 
flesh of Tutunui still sticking between his teeth, 
and his teeth were uneven and all overlapped one 



kae's theft of the whale. 95 



another. From this circumstance a proverb has 
been preserved among the Maories to the present 
day — for if any one on listening to a story told 
by another is amused at it and laughs, one of the 
bystanders says, " Ah, there 's Kae laughing." 

No sooner did the women who had come from 
Tinirau's see the flesh of Tutunui sticking in Kae's 
teeth than they made an excuse for letting the fire 
burn dimly in the house, saying, that they wanted 
to go to sleep — their real object, however, being to 
be able to perform their enchantments without 
being seen ; but the old magician, who suspected 
something, took two round pieces of mother-of-pearl 
shell, and stuck one in the socket of each eye, so 
that the strangers, observing the faint rays of light 
reflected from the surface of the mother-of-pearl, 
might think they saw the white of his eyes, and 
that he was still awake. ^ 

The women from Tinirau's went on, however, 
with their enchantments, and by their magical arts 
threw every one in the house into an enchanted 
sleep, with the intention, when they had done this, 
of carrying off Kae by stealth. So soon as Kae 
and the people in the house were all deep in this 
enchanted sleep, the women ranged themselves in a 
long row, the whole way from the place where Kae 
was sleeping down to their canoe ; they all stood 
in a straight line, with a little interval between 



96 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



each of them ; and then two of them went to fetch 
Kae, and lifted the old magician gently up, rolled 
up in his cloaks, just as he had laid himself down 
to sleep, and placed him gently in the arms of 
those who stood near the door, who passed him 
on to two others, and thus they handed him on 
from one to another, until he at last reached the 
arms of the two women who were standing in the 
canoe ready to receive him ; and they laid him 
down very gently in the canoe, fast asleep as he 
was ; and thus the old magician Kae was carried 
off by Hine-i-te-iwaiwa and Kaukatauri. 

When the women reached the village of Tinirau 
in their canoe, they again took up Kae, and carried 
him very gently up to the house of Tinirau, and 
laid him down fast asleep close to the central pillar, 
which supported the ridge-pole of the house, so 
that the place where he slept in the house of Tini- 
rau was exactly like his sleeping-place in his own 
house. The house of Kae was, however, a large 
circular house, without a ridge-pole, but with raft- 
ers springing from the central pillar, running down 
like rays to low side posts in the circular wall ; 
whilst the house of Tinirau was a long house, with 
a ridge-pole running the entire length of the roof, 
and resting upon the pillar in its centre. 

When Tinirau heard that the old magician had 
been brought to his village, he caused orders to be 



kae's theft of the whale. 



97 



given to his tribe that when he made his appear- 
ance in the morning, going to the house where Kae 
was, they should all call out loud, "Here comes 
Tinirau, here comes Tinirau," as if he was coming 
as a visitor into the village of Kae, so that the old 
magician on hearing them might think that he was 
still at home. 

At broad daylight next morning, when Tinirau's 
people saw him passing along through the village 
towards his house, they all shouted aloud, " Here 
comes Tinirau, here comes Tinirau ; " and Kae, who 
heard the cries, started up from his enchanted 
sleep quite drowsy and confused, whilst Tinirau 
passed straight on, and sat down just outside the 
door of his house, so that he could look into it, 
and, looking in, he saw Kae, and saluted him, 
saying, " Salutations to you, Kae ! " and then he 
asked him, saying, " How came you here V and 
the old magician replied, " Nay, but rather how 
came you here ? " 

Tinirau replied, " Just look, then, at the house, 
and see if you recognise it ? " 

But Kae, who was still stupified by his sleep, 
looking round, saw he was lying in his own place 
at the foot of the pillar, and said, " This is my 
house/' 

Tinirau asked him, "Where was the window 
placed in your house ? " 

F 



98 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Kae started and looked ; the whole appearance 
of his house appeared to be changed ; he at once 
guessed the truth, that the house he was in be- 
longed to Tinirau ; and the old magician, who saw 
that his hour had come, bowed down his head in si- 
lence to the earth, and they seized him, and dragged 
him out, and slew him : thus perished Kae. 

The news of his death at last reached his tribe 
— the descendants of Poporokewa ; and they even- 
tually attacked the fortress of Tinirau with a large 
army, and avenged the death of Kae by slaying 
Tinirau' s son. 




KATIVE HOUSE* 



THE LEGEND OF TUWHAKARARO, 

HOW HE WAS MUEDEEED AND AVENGED. 

Now about this time Tuhuruhuru, the son of Rupe's 
sister, grew up to man's estate, and he married 
Apakura, and she gave birth to a son whom they 
named Tuwhakararo, and afterwards to a daughter 
named Mairatea ; she had then several other chil- 
dren ; then she gave birth to Whakatau-potiki ; 
afterwards her last child was born, and its name 
was Reimatua. 

When Mairatea grew up, she was married to the 
son of a chief named Poporokewa, the chief of the 
Ati-Hapai tribe, and she accompanied her husband 
to his home ; but Tuwhakararo remained at his own 
village, and after a time he longed to see his sister, 
and thought he would go and pay her a visit ; so 
he went, and arrived at a very large house belong- 
ing to the tribe Poporokewa, the name of which was 
Uru-o-Manono ; all the family and dependants of 
Poporokewa lived in that house, and Tuwhakararo 
remained there with them. It happened that a 

F 2 



100 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



young sister of his brother-in-law, whose name was 
Maurea, took a great fancy to him, and showed 
that she liked him, although, at the very time, she 
was carrying on a courtship with another young 
man of the Ati-Hapai tribe. 

Whilst Tuwhakararo was on this visit to his 
brother-in-law, some of the young men of the Ati- 
Hapai tribe asked him one day to wrestle with 
them, and he, agreeing to this, stood up to wrestle, 
and the one who came forward as his competitor 
was the sweetheart of his brother-in-law's young 
sister. Tuwhakararo laid hold of the young man, 
and soon gave him a severe fall. That match being 
over, they both stood up again, and Tuwhakararo, 
lifting him in his arms, gave him another severe 
fall ; and all the young people of the Ati-Hapai 
tribe burst out laughing at the youth, for having 
had two such heavy falls from Tuwhakararo, and 
he sat down upon the ground, looking very foolish, 
and feeling exceedingly sulky and provoked at being 
laughed at by everybody. 

Tuwhakararo, having also finished wrestling, sat 
clown too, and began to put on his clothes again, 
and whilst he was in the act of putting his head 
through his cloak, the young man he had thrown 
in wrestling ran up, and just as his head appeared 
through the cloak threw a handful of sand in his eyes. 
Tuwhakararo,. wild with pain, could see nothing, 



THE MURDER OF TUWHAKARARO. 101 

and began to rub bis eyes, to get tbe dust out and 
to ease tbe anguisb ; tbe young man tben struck 
bim on the bead, and killed bim. Tbe people of 
tbe Ati-Hapai tribe tben ran in upon bim and cut 
bis body up, and afterwards devoured it; and they 
took his bones, and hung them up in the roof, 
under the ridge-pole of their house Te Uru-o- 
Manono. 

Whilst they were hung up there the bones rat- 
tled together, and his sister heard them, and it 
seemed to her as if they made a sound like "Taupa- 
roro, Tauparoro;" and she listened again to the 
rattling of the bones, and again she heard the 
words " Tauparoro, Tauparoro." And the sister of 
Tawhakararo looking up to the bones, said, "You 
rattle in vain, bones of him who was devoured 
by tbe Ati-Hapai tribe, for who is there to lament 
over him or to avenge bis death V 

At last the news of the sad event which had 
taken place reached the ears of bis brother, Wha- 
katau-potiki, and of his other brothers, and when 
they heard it they were grieved and pained at 
the fate of their brother, and at last Whakatau- 
potiki adopted a firm resolution to go and avenge 
Tawhakararo's death, and as the rest of his tribe 
agreed in this purpose, they began without delay to 
build canoes for its execution. 

They named some of their canoes tbe Whiritoa, 



102 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



the Tapatapahukarere, the Toroa-i-taipakihi, the 
Hakirere, and the Mahunu-awatea, and^to all the 
other canoes which they prepared for this purpose 
they also gave names ; and when they had finished 
lashing on the top-boards of their canoes, their 
mother Apakura, with all her female attendants, 
began to beat and prepare fern root for the war- 
riors to carry with them as provisions for their 
voyage, and whilst the females were thus engaged 
in beating and preparing fern root for the war 
party who were about to start to revenge the 
death of Tuwhakararo, they kept on repeating a 
lament for the young man which might rouse the 
feelings of the warriors. 

Lo, the army of Whakatau-potiki now embarked ; 
they started in a thousand canoes, and floated out 
into the open sea, and proceeding upon their course, 
they landed at a certain place which lay in their 
route, and there the army of Whakatau had a re- 
view, to show how well they could go through 
their manoeuvres. They were formed into columns, 
and one column, with fierce shouts and yells, after 
a war dance, sprang upon the supposed enemy, and 
whilst they were thus engaged with their imaginary 
foe, a second column, with wild cries, advanced to 
their support ; then the first column of warriors 
retired to re-form, and thus column after column 
feigned to charge their foes. 




WAR DANCE. 



THE MUEDER OF TUWHAKARARO. 103 

Then one body of the warriors rushed to an 
adjoining creek and tried to jump across it, but 
they could not. A band of men under Wha- 
katau's immediate command were sitting upon 
the ground watching the others, and when the 
first body gave up in despair all thoughts of 
overleaping the creek, this chosen band of Wha- 
katau rose from the ground, started forward, 
reached in good order the edge of the creek, and 
sprang easily across it (the whole body of them to 
the other side), 

When the review was ended, Whakatau made a 
speech to the warriors, saying, " Warriors, all of you 
listen to me. We will not finish our voyage until 
the dark night, lest we should be seen by the people 
we are about to attack, and thus fail in surprising 
them." 

Just as it was dark, Whakatau ordered his own 
chosen band of warriors to go and pull the plugs 
out of all the canoes but their own, and they, in 
obedience to his orders, went round and pulled all 
the plugs out of the canoes, and thus they did to 
the whole of them without missing a single canoe 
of the whole thousand. 

This having been done, Whakatau called aloud 
to the whole force, "Now my men, let us em- 
bark at once this very night." Then the warriors 
hurriedly arose in the darkness, and all was confu- 
sion and noise, and one canoe was launched, and then 



104 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

another, and another, until all were afloat on the 
sea. Then they all embarked, and the several crews 
sprang cheerfully into their own canoes ; but lo, 
presently the canoes all began to sink, one after the 
other, and the crews were compelled again to seek 
the shore, and to busy themselves there in repairing 
them. In the meantime the chosen band of warriors 
of Whakatau urged on their canoes, leaving the others 
behind, and when they drew near the place where 
the house called the Uru-o-Manono was situated, they 
landed. Then the warriors silently surrounded the 
house in ranks throughout its whole circumference, 
and each of the eight doors of the house they 
guarded by a band of men, and Whakatau laid hold 
of a man named Hioi, whom they caught outside of 
the house, and he questioned him, saying, " Where 
is my sister now V And Hioi answered him, " She 
is in the house." And he asked him again, " In 
what part of the house does Poporokewa sleep?" 
Hioi replied, " At the foot of the large pillar which 
supports the ridge-pole of the house." Whakatau 
next asked, " Has he any distinguishing mark by 
which we may know him?" Hioi answered, " You 
may know him by one of his teeth being broken." 
Whakatau asked him one question more, saying, 
"In what part of the house does my sister sleep ?" 
And Hioi answered him, " She sleeps close to that 
door." 

Whakatau-potiki asked him no further questions, 



THE MURDER OF TUWHAKARARO. 105 

but took the fellow and cut out his tongue, and 
when he had done so he made him talk, and he still 
spoke quite distinctly, although a great part of his 
tongue was cut out. Whakatau then took him 
again, and cut his tongue off quite close to the root, 
and he made him try to talk again, and nothing 
but an indistinct mumbling could be heard, so he 
then ordered the man into the house to send his 
sister out to him. 

Hioi went as he was told to send Whakatau's 
sister to him, for she was then in the Uru-o-Manono, 
the house of her father-in-law, Poporokewa. When 
he got inside, the whole mass of the Ati-Hapai tribe 
who were sitting saw him come in, and some of 
them asked him where he had been to, and what 
he had gone for ; but what was the use of their 
talking to him, since he could do nothing but mum- 
ble out indistinct words in reply, and those who 
were sitting near him wondered what could be the 
matter. 

But the sister of Whakatau guessed in a moment 
that this was some device of her brother's, and at 
once went out of the house, and found Whaka- 
tau, and she and her brother wept together, partly 
from joy at their meeting, partly from sorrow in 
thinking of the melancholy death of their brother 
since they had last met. 

When they had done weeping, Whakatau asked 

F 3 



106 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



her, " In what part of the house does Poporokewa 
sleep ?" And she answered him, " He sleeps at the 
foot of the large pillar which supports the ridge-pole 
of the house/' And then she added, " But oh, my 
brother, a great part of the Ati-Hapai tribe have 
seen you before, and they will know you/' Her 
brother then asked her, " What then do you think I 
had better do ? " His sister answered, " You had 
better cut your hair quite short to disguise yourself. 

He consented to this being done, so his sister 
cut his hair quite close for him, and when she had 
done this she rubbed his face all over with charcoal, 
and then he and his sister went together into the 
house. The fire iq the house had got quite low 
some time before, and when they entered, the peo- 
ple near where they went in, cried out, "Make 
up the fire, make up the fire; here's a 
stranger, here's a stranger." So they blew up 
the fire and made it burn brightly, and many of 
them came to see Whakatau-potiki, and when they 
had looked well at him, they broke out laughing, 
and said, "What a black-looking fellow he is!" 
Even Poporokewa burst out laughing at his appear- 
ance, and Whakatau, when he saw him laugh, at 
once recognised him by his broken tooth. 

Whakatau-potiki had taken a stout rope with 
him when he went into the house, and he held this 
ready coiled in his hand, with a noose at one end of 



THE MUKDEK OF TUWHAKAKARO. 107 

it ; and as soon as he recognised Poporokewa, he 
slily dropped the noose over his head, and suddenly 
hauling it tight, it got fast round his neck : then, 
still holding the rope in his hand, and lengthening it 
by degrees as he went, Whakatau and his sister 
rushed out of the house ; and he still hauling with 
all his strength on the rope, climbed up on the roof, 
repeating a powerful incantation. 

Then each warrior sprang up into his place from 
the ground, on which they had been lying down to 
conceal themselves, and they set fire to the house 
in several places at once, and slaughtered all those 
who tried to escape. Thus they burnt the Uru-o- 
Manono, and all those who were in it, and then 
the warriors returned, and carried with them joyful 
news to Apakura, the mother of Tuwhakararo. 



THE LEGEND OF RATA, 

HIS ADVENTURES WITH THE ENCHANTED TREE AND REVENGE 
OF HIS FATHER'S MURDER. 

Before Tawhaki ascended up into the heavens, a 
son named Wahieroa had been born to him by his 
first wife. As soon as Wahieroa grew to man's 
estate, he took Kura for a wife, and she bore him 
a son whom they called Rata. Wahieroa was slain 
treacherously by a chief named Matukutakotako, 
but his son Rata was born some time before his 
death. It therefore became his duty to revenge 
the death of his father Wahieroa, and Rata having 
grown up, at last devised a plan for doing this; he 
therefore gave the necessary orders to his dependants, 
at the same time saying to them, " I am about to 
go in search of the man who slew my father." 

He then started upon a journey for this purpose, 
and at length arrived at the entrance to the place 
of Matukutakotako ; he found there a man who 
was left in charge of it, sitting at the entrance to 
the court-yard, and he asked him, saying, " Where 
is the man who killed my father?" The man who 



THE AD VENTURES OF EATA. 109 



was left in charge of the place answered him — 
" He lives beneath in the earth there, and I am left 
here by him, to call to him and warn him when 
the new moon appears ; at that season he rises and 
comes forth upon the earth, and devours men as 
his food." 

Rata then said to him, " All that you say is true, 
but how can he know when the proper time comes 
for him to rise up from the earth?" The man re 
plied, " I call aloud to him." 

Then said Eata, "When will there be a new 
moon V And the man who was left to take care 
of the place answered him, " In two nights hence. 
Do you now return to your own village, but on the 
morning of the second day from this time come 
here again to me." 

Eata, in compliance with these directions, re- 
turned to his own dwelling, and waited there 
until the time that had been appointed him, 
and on the morning of that day he again jour- 
neyed along the road he had previously travelled, 
and found the man sitting in the same place, 
and he asked him, saying, " Do you know any spot 
where I can conceal myself, and lie hid from the 
enemy with whom I am about to fight, from Ma- 
tukutakotako ?" The man replied, "Come with 
me until I show you the two fountains of clear 
water." 



110 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



They then went together until they came to the 
two fountains. 

The man then said to Rata, "The spot that we 
stand on is the place where Matuku rises up from 
the earth, and yonder fountain is the one in which 
he combs and washes his dishevelled hair, but this 
fountain is the one he uses to reflect his face 
in whilst he dresses it ; you cannot kill him 
whilst he is at the fountain he uses to reflect 
his face in, because your shadow would be also 
reflected in it, and he would see it ; but at the 
fountain in which he washes his hair, you may 
smite and slay him." 

Rata then asked the man, " Will he make his 
appearance from the earth this evening ? " And 
the man answered, "Yea" 

They had not waited long there, when evening 
arrived, and the moon became visible, and the man 
said to Rata, " Do you now go and hide yourself 
near the brink of the fountain in which he washes 
his hair and Rata went and hid himself near 
the edge of the fountain, and the man who had 
been left to watch for the purpose shouted aloud, 
" Ho, Ho, the new moon is visible — a moon two 
days old." And Matukutakotako heard him, and 
seizing his two-handed wooden sword, he rose 
up from the earth there, and went straight to his 
two fountains ; then he laid down his two-handed 



THE AD VENTURES OF EATA. Ill 

wooden sword on the ground, at the edge of the 
fountain where he dressed his hair, and kneeling 
down on both knees beside it, he loosened the 
strings which bound up his long locks, and shook 
out his dishevelled hair, and plunged down his-head 
into the cool clear waters of the fountain. So Kata 
creeping out from where he lay hid, rapidly moved 
up, and stood behind him, and as Matuku-takotako 
raised his head from the water, Rata with one 
hand seized him by the hair, while with the other 
he smote and slew him ; thus he avenged the death 
of his father Wahieroa. 

Eata then asked the man whom he had found in 
charge of the place, " Where shall I find the bones 
of Wahieroa my father V And the keeper of the 
place answered hiin, " They are not here ; a strange 
people who live at a distance came and carried 
them off." 

Upon hearing this, Eata returned to his own 
village, and there reflected over many designs by 
which he might recover the bones of his father. 

At length he thought of an excellent plan for 
this purpose, so he went into the forest and having 
found a very tall tree, quite straight throughout its 
entire length, he felled it, and cut off its noble branch- 
ing top, intending to fashion the trunk into a canoe ; 
and all the insects which inhabit trees, and the 
spirits of the forests, were very angry at this, and 



112 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



as soon as Rata had returned to the village at even- 
ing when his day's work was ended, they all came 
and took the tree, and raised it up again, and the 
innumerable multitude of insects, birds, and spirits, 
who are called " The offspring of Hakuturi," worked 
away at replacing each little chip and shaving in 
its proper place, and sang aloud their incantations 
as they worked ; this was what they sang with a 
confused noise of various voices : — 

Fly together, chips and shavings, 
Stick ye fast together, 
Hold ye fast together ; 
Stand upright again, tree ! 

Early the next morning back came Rata, intend- 
ing to work at hewing the trunk of his tree into a 
canoe. When he got to the place where he had 
left the trunk lying on the ground, at first he 
could not find it, and if that fine tall straight tree, 
which he saw standing whole and sound in the 
forest, was the same he thought he had cut 
down, there it was now erect again ; however 
he stepped up to it, and manfully hewing away 
at it again, he felled it to the ground once more, 
and off he cut its fine branching top again, and 
began to hollow out the hold of the canoe, and 
to slope off its prow and the stern into their proper 
gracefully curved forms ; and in the evening, when 



THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 113 



it became too dark to work, he returned to his 
village. 

As soon as he was gone, back came the innu- 
merable multitudes of insects, birds, and spirits, 
who are called the offspring of Hakuturi, and they 
raised up the tree upon its stump once more, and 
with a confused noise of various voices, they sang 
incantations as they worked, and when they had 
ended these, the tree again stood sound as ever in 
its former place in the forest. 

The morning dawned, and Rata returned once 
more to work at his canoe. When he reached the 
place, was not he amazed to see the tree standing 
up in the forest, untouched, just as he had at first 
found it? But he, nothing daunted, hews away at it 
again, and down it topples crashing to the earth ; 
as soon as he saw the tree upon the ground, Rata 
went off as if going home, and then turned back 
and hid himself in the underwood, in a spot whence 
he could peep out and see what took place ; he had 
not been hidden long, when he heard the innumer- 
able multitude of the children of Tane approach- 
ing the spot, singing their incantations as they 
came along ; at last they arrived close to the place 
where the tree was lying upon the ground. Lo, a 
rush upon them is made by Rata. Ha, he has 
seized some of them ; he shouts out to them, saying, 
— " Ha, ha, it is you, is it, then, who have been 



114 



POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY. 



exercising your magical arts upon my tree?" Then 
the children of Tane all cried aloud in reply, — 
" Who gave you authority to fell the forest god to 
the ground ? You had no right to do so." 

When Rata heard them say this, he was quite 
overcome with shame at what he had done. 

The offspring of Tane again all called out aloud 
to him — "Return, O Rata, to thy village, we will 
make a canoe for you." 

Rata, without delay, obeyed their orders, and as 
soon as he had gone they all fell to work ; they were 
so numerous, and understood each what to do so 
well, that they no sooner began to adze out a 
canoe than it was completed. When they had 
done this, Rata and his tribe lost no time in haul- 
ing it from the forest to the water, and the name 
they gave to that canoe was Riwaru. 

When the canoe was afloat upon the sea, 140 
warriors embarked on board it, and without delay 
they paddled off to seek their foes ; one night, just 
at nightfall, they reached the fortress of their ene- 
mies, who were named Ponaturi. When they arrived 
there, Rata alone landed, leaving the canoe afloat 
and all his warriors on board ; as he stole along 
the shore, he saw that a fire was burning on the 
sacred place, where the Ponaturi consulted their 
gods and offered sacrifices to them. Rata, without 
stopping, crept directly towards the fire, and hid 



THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 



115 



himself behind some thick bushes of the Hara- 
keke ;* he then saw that there were some priests 
upon the other side of the same bushes, serving at 
the sacred place, and, to assist themselves in their 
magical arts, they were making use of the bones 
of Wahieroa, knocking them together to beat time 
while they were repeating a powerful incanta- 
tion, known only to themselves, the name of 
which was Titikura. Rata listened attentively to this 
incantation, until he learnt it by heart, and when 
he was quite sure that he knew it, he rushed sud- 
denly upon the priests ; they, surprised and igno- 
rant of the numbers of their enemy, or whence they 
came, made little resistance, and were in a moment 
smitten and slain. The bones of his father Wahieroa 
were then eagerly snatched up by him ; he hastened 
with them back to the canoe, embarked on board 
it, and his warriors at once paddled away, striving 
to reach his fortified village. 

In the morning some of the Ponaturi repaired 
to their sacred place, and found their priests lying 
dead there, just as they were slain by Rata. So, 
without delay, they pursued him. A thousand war- 
riors of their tribe followed after Rata. At length 
this army reached the fortress of Rata, and an en- 
gagement at once took place, in which the tribe of 
Rata was worsted, and sixty of its warriors slain ; 
* New Zealand flax. 



116 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



at this moment Rata bethought him of the spell he 
had learnt from the priests, and, immediately re- 
peating the potent incantation Titikura, his slain 
warriors were by its power once more restored to 
life; then they rushed again to the combat, and 
the Ponaturi were slaughtered by Rata and his 
tribe, a thousand of them — the whole thousand 
were slain. 

Te Rata's task of avenging his father's death 
being thus ended, his tribe hauled up his large 
canoe on the shore, and roofed it over with thatch 
to protect it from the sun and weather. Rata now 
took Tongarautawhiri as one of his wives, and she 
bore him a son whom he named Tuwhakararo ; 
when this son came to man's estate, he took Apa- 
kura as one of his wives, and from her sprang a 
son named Whakatau. He was not born in the 
manner that mortals are, but came into being in 
this way: One day Apakura went down upon the 
sea-coast, and took off a little apron which she 
wore in front as a covering, and threw it into the 
oceau, and a god named Rongotakawiu took it and 
shaped it, and gave it form and being, and Wha- 
katau sprang into life, and his ancestor Rongota- 
kawiu taught him magic and the use of enchant- 
ments of every kind. 

When Whakatau was a little lad, his favourite 
amusement was flying kites. Mortals then often 



THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 117 

observed kites "flying in the air, and could see no- 
thing else, for Whakatau was running about at the 
bottom of the waters, still holding the end of the 
string of the kite in his hands. One day he stole 
up out of the water by degrees, and at length came 
upon the shore, when the whole of his body was 
quite plainly seen by some people who were near, 
and they ran as fast as they could to catch 
him. When Whakatau observed them all running to 
seize him, he slipped back again into the water, and 
continued flying his kite as before; but the people 
who had seen him were surprised at this strange 
sight, and being determined to catch him the 
next time he came out, they sat down upon the 
bank to wait for him. At last Whakatau came 
up out of the water again, and stepped on shore 
once more ; then the people who were watching 
for him, all ran at full speed to catch him. jjWhen 
Whakatau saw them coming after him again, he 
cried out, " You had better go and bring Apakura 
here, she is the only person who can catch me and 
hold me fast." 

When they heard this, one of them ran to fetch 
Apakura, and she came with him at once, and as 
soon as she saw little Whakatau, she called out to 
him, " Here I am, I am Apakura/' Whakatau 
then stopped running, and Apakura caught hold of 
him with her hands, and she questioned him, saying, 



118 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



"Whom do you belong to?" And Whakatau an- 
swered her, " I am your child ; you one day threw 
the little apron which covered you on the sands of 
the sea, and the god Rongotakawiu, my ancestor, 
formed me from it, and I grew up a human being, 
and he, named me Whakatau." 

From that time Whakatau left the water and 
continued to live on shore. His principal amusement, 
as long as he was a lad, was still flying kites; but 
he understood magic well, and nothing was con- 
cealed from him, and when he grew up to be a 
man he became a renowned hero. 

This second legend of the destruction by Whakatau-potiki of 
the house called Te Tihi-o-Manono, or Te Uru-o-Manono, is added, 
because it differs considerably from the other, and is often alluded 
to in ancient poems. 

Tinirau determined to attempt to avenge the death of his de- 
scendant Tuwhakararo, and he thought that the best person to do 
this was Whakatau, whom he knew to be very skilful in war, and 
in enchantments, so he directed his wife Hine-i-te-iwaiwa to find 
Whakatau, and she went in search ; when she reached a village 
near where she expected to find him, she asked some people 
whom she saw, where Whakatau was, and they answered her, 
" He is on the top of yonder hill flying a kite." She at once pro- 
ceeded on her way until she came to the hill, and seeing a man 
there, she asked him, " Can you tell me where I can find Wha- 
katau?" and he replied, " You must have passed him as you came 
here." Then she returned to the village where she had seen 
the people, and said to them, " Why, the man upon the hill says 
that Whatakau is here;" but they told her that the man who had 
spoken to her must have been Whakatau himself, and that she had 
better return to him, and told her marks by which she might 
know him ; she therefore returned, and he, after some time, when 
she showed him that she knew certain marks about his person, 



THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 119 



admitted that he was Whakatau ; and he then asked her what 
had made her come to him] and she replied, " Tinirau sent me to 
yon to ask you to come and assist in revenging the death of our 
near relative; the warriors are all collecting at the village of 
Tinirau, but they fear to go to attack this enemy, for it is the 
bravest of all the enemies of Tinirau." Whakatau then asked her, 
"Have you yet given a feast to the warriors]" and she said, 
" Not yet." He then spoke to her, saying, " Return at once and 
when you reach your village, give a great feast to the warriors ; 
give them abundance of potted birds from the forests, but let all 
the oil in which the birds were preserved be kept for me ; as for 
yourself, do not go to the feast, but, decking your head with a 
mourning dress of feathers, remain seated close in the house of 
mourning." Then Hine-i-te-iwaiwa at once returned to Tinirau, to 
do as she had been directed. 

Shortly after his visitor had left him, Whakatau called aloud to 
his people, saying, " Let the sideboards be at once fresh lashed on 
to our canoe, to the canoe of our ancestor of Rata." His men were 
so anxious to fulfil their chief's orders, that almost as soon as 
he had spoken they were at work, and had finished the canoe 
that very day, and dragged it down to the sea ; when night fell, 
six of his warriors embarked in it, and Whakatau made the 
seventh ; they then paddled off, following a direct course, until 
they reached the village of Tinirau ; where they found Hine-i-te- 
iwaiwa seated in her house of mourning. Whakatau then asked 
her, "Have the warriors all left yet]" and she replied, " They will 
not do it, they are afraid." Whakatau then said to her, " Farewell, 
then ; do you remain here until you hear further from me." 

Whakatau and his men having re-embarked in their canoe, made 
a straight course for the place where was situated the great house 
called the Tihi-o-Manono, and they let their anchor drop, and 
floated there. 

When the next morning broke, and some of the people of the 
village coming out of the house, and beyond their defences, saw 
the canoe floating at the anchorage, they gave the alarm,' crying 
out, " A war party ! a war party ! " Then the warriors came 
rushing forth to the fray in crowds, and arranged themselves in 
bands. Then stood forth one of their champions whose name was 
Mango-huritapena, and he defied Whakatau, who was standing up 
in his canoe, calling out, " Were you fool enough, then, to come 



120 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



here of your own accord?" and Whakatau answered him, by shout- 
ing out, " Which of the arts of war do you consider yourself 
famous fori" and Mango-huritapena shouted out in answer, "I 
am a most skilful diver." " Dive here, then, if you dare," shouted 
out Whakatau in reply. Then the champion of the enemy gave a 
plunge into the water, and dived under it. Just as he got right 
under the canoe, one of Whakatau 's men poured the oil which 
Hine-i-te-iwaiwa had given them into the sea, and its waters im- 
mediately became quite transparent, so that they saw the warrior 
come floating up under the canoe, and Whakatau transfixed him 
with a wooden spade ; so that champion perished. 

Then forward stepped another champion named Pitakataka, and 
he defied AVhakatau, shouting out, "Ah! you only killed Mango- 
huritapena because he chanced to put himself in a wrong position." 
Whakatau shouted out in reply, " Which of the arts of war are 
you skilled in, then 1 ?" and he answered, "Oh! I leap so skilfully 
that I seem to fly in the air." " Then leap here, if you dare," an- 
swered Whakatau ; and the champion of his enemies took a run 
and made a spring high into the air ; but Whakatau laid a noose 
on the canoe, and as the warrior alighted in it, he drew it tight, 
and caught him as a bird in a springe, and thus slew that warrior 
also. 

And thus, one after the other, he slew ten of the most famous 
warriors of his enemies ; one whom he had seized, he saved 
alive, but he cut out his tongue, and then said to him, " Now, 
off with you to the shore again, and tell them there how I have 
overcome you all j" having done this, Whakatau retired a little 
distance back from the place, so that his canoe could not be seen 
by his enemies. 

In the afternoon Whakatau landed on the coast, and before eat- 
ing anything, offered the prescribed sacrifice of the hair and a part 
of the skin of the head of one of his victims to the gods ; and 
when the religious rites were finished, he eat food ; and having 
done this, he directed the people he had with him to return, 
saying, "Eeturn at once, and when you reach the residence of 
Hine-i-te-iwaiwa, speak to her, saying, ' Whakatau told us to come, 
and tell you, that he could not return with us ;' and he further 
said, ' If heavy rain falls in large drops, it is a sign that I have been 
killed ; but if a light, misty rain falls, and the whole horizon is 
lighted up with flames, then you may know that I have conquered, 



THE ADVENTURES OF RATA. 



121 



and that I have burnt the Tihi-o-Manono he also said that he 
wished you to sit upon the roof of your house watching until you 
saw the Tihi-o-Manono burnt." Whakatau's people at once returned 
to Hine-i-te-iwaiwa to deliver the message he had given them. 

Just before nightfall, Whakatau drew near the great house, called 
the Tihi-o-Manono, and as the people of Whitinakonako, a great 
chief, were collecting firewood at the edge of a forest, he stealthily 
dropped in amongst them, pretending to be collecting firewood too ; 
and as they were going home with their loads of firewood upon 
their backs, he managed to push on in front of them, and got into 
the house first with a long rope in his hand : one end of this he 
pushed between one of the side posts which supported the roof, 
and the plank walls of the house, and did the same with every 
post of the house, until the rope had gone quite round it, and then 
he made one end of it fast to the last post, and held the other end 
in his hand. 

By this time the people who lived in the house all came crowd- 
ing on to pass the night in it, and soon filled it up : the house was 
so large, and there were so many of them, that they had to light ten 
fires in it. 

When their fires had burnt up brightly, some of them called out to 
Mango-Pare, the man whom Whakatau had saved alive, and whose 
tongue he had cut out, " Well, now, tell us what kind of looking 
fellow that was who cut your tongue out and Mango-Pare answered, 
" There is no one I can compare him to, he was not like a man in 
the proportion of his frame." One of them then called out, " Was 
he at all like me V But Mango-Pare answered, " There is nobody I 
can compare him to." Then another called out, " Was he at all like 
me]" and another, "Was he like me]" until, at length, Mango-Pare 
cried out, " Have I not already told you, that there is not one of 
you whom I can compare to him]" 

Whakatau himself then exclaimed, "Was he at all like me]" And 
Mango-Pare, who had not before seen him in the crowd, looked 
attentively at him for a minute, and then cried out, " I say, 
look here all of you at this fellow, he is not unlike the man, he 
looks very like him, perhaps it is he himself." But Whakatau 
coolly asked him again, " Was the man really something like me]" 
And Mango-Pare replied, " Yes, he was like you ; I really think it 
was you ;" and Whakatau shouted aloud, " You are right, it was I." 
As soon as they heard this, all of them in a moment sprang to their 

G 



122 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



feet. But, at the same instant, Whakatau laid hold of the end of the 
rope which he had passed round the posts of the house, and, rush- 
ing out, pulled it with all his strength, and straightway the house 
fell down, crushing all within it, so that the whole tribe perished, 
and Whakatau, who had escaped to the outside of the house, set it on 
fire, and Hine-i-te-iwaiwa, who was sitting upon the roof of her own 
house watching for the event, saw the whole of one part of the 
heavens red with its flames, and she knew that her enemies were 
destroyed. Whakatau, having thus avenged the death of Tuwhaka- 
raro, returned to his own village. 



THE LEGEND OF TOI-TE-HUATAHI 
AND TAMA-TE-KAPUA. 



THE DISSENSIONS WHICH LED TO THE MIGRATIONS FROM HAWAIKI. 

Our ancestors formerly separated — some of them 
were left in Hawaiki, and some came here in 
canoes. Tuamatua and Uenuku paddled in their 
canoes here to Aotea ; again, at that time some of 
them were separated from each other, that is to say, 
Uenuku and Houmai-tawhiti. 

For in the time of Houmai-tawhiti there had 
been a great war, and thence there were many 
battles fought in Hawaiki ; but this war had com- 
menced long before that time, in the days of Wha- 
katauihu, of Tawhaki, and of Tuhuruhuru, when 
they carried off Kae alive from his place as a pay- 
ment for Tutunui ; and the war continued until the 
time of the disputes that arose on account of the 
body of warriors of Manaia. Again after that 
came the troubles that arose from the act of dese- 
cration that was committed by the dog of Houmai- 
tawhiti and of his sons in eating the matter that 
had sloughed from an ulcer of Uenuku's. Upon 
this occasion, when Toi-te-huatahi and Uenuku saw 
the dog, named Potaka-tawhiti, do this, they killed 

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124 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



it, and the sons of Houmai-tawhiti missing the dog, 
went everywhere searching for it, and could not 
find it ; they went from village to village, until at 
last they came to the village of Toi-te-huatahi, and 
as they went they kept calling this dog. 

At last the dog howled in the belly of Toi', 
"Ow ! " Then Tama-te-kapua and Whakaturia called 
their clog again, and again it howled " w ! * 
Then Toi' held his mouth shut as close as ever he 
could, but the dog still kept on howling in his 
inside. Thence Toi' said as follows, and his words 
passed into a proverb, " Oh, hush, hush ! I thought 
I had hid you in the big belly of Toi', and there 
you are, you cursed thing, still howling away." 

When Tama-te-kapua and his brother had thus 
arrived there, he asked, " Why did not you kill 
the clog and bring it back to me, that my heart 
might have felt satisfied, and that we might have 
remained good friends ? Now, I '11 tell you what 
it is, my relations, you shall by and by hear 
more of this/' Then as soon as the two bro- 
thers got home, they began immediately to make 
stilts for Tama-te-kapua, and as soon as these 
were finished, they started that night and went to 
the village of Toi' and Uenuku, and arrived at the 
fine poporo tree of Uenuku, covered with branches 
and leaves, and they remained eating the fruit of it 
for a good long time, and then went home again. 



THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 125 

This they continued doing every night, until at 
last Uenuku and his people found that the fruit of 
his poporo tree was nearly all gone, and they all 
wondered what had become of the fruit of the 
poporo tree, and they looked for traces, and there 
were some — the traces of the stilts of Tama'. At 
night they kept watch on the tree : whilst one 
party was coming to steal, the other was lying in 
wait to catch them ; this latter had not waited 
very long, when Tama' and his brother came, and 
whilst they were busy eating, those who were tying 
in wait rushed upon them, and caught both of 
them. 

They seized Whakaturia at the very foot of the 
tree ; Tama' made his escape, but they gave chase, 
and caught him on the sea-shore. As soon as they 
had him firmly, those who were holding on cried 
out, "Some of you chop down Ms stilts with 
an axe, so that the fellow may fall into the water;" 
and all those who had hold of him cried out, " Yes, 
yes, let him fall into the sea." Then Tama' called 
down to them, " If you fell me in the water, I 
shall not be hurt, but if you cut me down on 
shore, the fall will kill me." And when those who 
were behind, and were just running up, heard this, 
they thought well of it, so they chopped him down 
on shore, and down he came with a heavy fall, 
but in a moment he was on Ins feet, and off he 



126 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



went, like a bird escaped from a snare, and so got 
safe away. 

Then all the village began to assemble to see 
Whakaturia put to death ; and when they were col- 
lected, some of them said, "Let him be put to 
death at once;" and others said, "Oh, don't do 
that ; you had much better hang him up in the roof 
of Uenuku's house, that he may be stifled by the 
smoke, and die in that way/' And the thought 
pleased them all, so they hung him up in the roof 
of the house, and kindled a fire, and commenced 
dancing, and when that ceased they began singing, 
but their dancing and singing was not at all good, 
but indeed shockingly bad ; and this they did 
every night, until at last a report of their proceed- 
ings reached the ears of his brother Tama' and of 
their father. 

And Tama' heard, " There 's your brother hang- 
ing up in the roof of Uenuku's great house, and he 
is almost stifled by the smoke." So he thought he 
would go and see him, and ascertain whether he 
still lived in spite of the smoke. He went in the 
night, and arrived at the house, and gently climbed 
right upon the top of the roof, and making a little 
hole in the thatch, immediately over the spot where 
his brother hung, asked him in a whisper, "Are 
you dead?" but he whispered up to him, "No, 
I 'm still alive." And his brother asked again in a 



THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 127 

whisper, "How do these people dance and sing, 
do they do it well?" And the other replied, "No, 
nothing can be worse ; the very bystanders do 
nothing but find fault with the way in which they 
dance and sing" 

Then Tama' said to him, "Would not it be a 
good thing for you to say to them, ' I never knew 
anything so bad as the dancing and singing of those 
people ; ■ and if they reply, ' Oh, perhaps you can 
dance and sing better than we do/ do you 
answer, 'That I can/ Then if they take you 
down, and say, 'Now, let us see your dancing/ 
you can answer, 'Oh, I am quite filthy from the 
soot ; you had better in the first place give me a 
little oil, and let me dress my hair, and give me 
some feathers to ornament my head with \ and if 
they agree to all this, when your hair is dressed, 
perhaps they will say, 'There, that will do, now 
dance and sing for us/ Then do you answer them, 
' Oh, I am still looking quite dirty, first lend me 
the red apron of TJenuku, that I may wear it as 
my own, and his carved two-handed sword as my 
weapon, and then I shall really look fit to dance \ 
and if they give you all these things, then dance 
and sing for them. Then I your brother will go 
and seat myself just outside the doorway of the 
house, and when you rush out, I '11 bolt the house- 
door and window, and when they try to pursue 



128 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and catch you, the door and window will be 
bolted fast, and we two can escape without danger." 
Then he finished talking to him. 

Then Whakaturia called down to Uenuku, and 
to all his people, who were assembled in the house, 
" Oh, all you people who are dancing and singing 
there, listen to me/' Then they all said, " Silence, 
silence, make no more noise there, and listen to 
what the fellow is saying who is hanging up 
there ; we thought he had been stifled by the 
smoke, but no such thing ; there he is, alive still/' 
So they all kept quiet. 

Then those who were in the house called up to 
him, " Holloa, you fellow hanging up in the roof 
there, what are you saying ; let 's hear you." And 
he answered, " I mean to say that you don't know 
any good dances or songs, at least that I have 
heard/' Then the people in the house answered, 
" Are you and your tribe famous for your dancing 
and singing then ?" and he answered, "Their songs 
and dances are beautiful;" and they asked, "Do 
you yourself know how to dance and sing ?" Then 
Uenuku said, "Let him down then ;" and he was 
let down, and the people all called out to him, 
" Now dance away." And he did everything ex- 
actly as Tama-te-kapua had recommended him. 

Then "Whakaturia called out to them, "Make 
a very bright fire, so that there may be no smoke, 



THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 129 



and you may see well;" and they made a bright 
clear fire. fThen he stood up to dance, and as 
he rose from' his seat on the ground, he looked 
bright and beautiful as the morning star appearing 
in the horizon, and as he flourished his sword his eyes 
flashed and glittered like the mother-of-pearl eyes 
in the head carved on the handle of his two-handed 
sword, jand he danced down one side of the house, 
and reached the door, then he turned and danced 
up the other side of the house, and reached the end 
opposite the door, and there he stood. 

Then he said quietly to them, " I am dying with 
heat, just slide back the door, and let it stand open 
a little, that I may feel the cool air \" and they 
slid the door back and left it open. Then the 
lookers-on said, " Come, you Ve rested enough ; the 
fresh air from outside must have made you cool 
enough ; stand up, and dance." Then "Whaka- 
turia rose up again to dance, and as he rose up, 
Tama-te-kapua stepped up to the door of the house, 
and sat down there, with two sticks in his hand, 
all ready to bolt up the sliding door and window. 

Then Whakaturia, as is the custom in the dance, 
turned round to his right hand, stuck out his 
tongue, and made hideous faces on that side ; again 
he turned round to the left hand, and made hideous 
faces on that side ; his eyes glared, and his sword 
and red apron looked splendid ; then he sprung 

G 3 



ISO 



POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY. 



about, and appeared hardly to stand for a moment 
at the end of the house near the door, before 
he had sprung back to the other end, and stand- 
ing just a moment there, he made a spring 
from the inside of the house, and immediately 
he was beyond the door. Up sprang Tama-te- 
kapua, and instantly bolted the door ; back ran 
Whakaturia ; he helped his brother to bolt up the 
window, and there they heard those inside curs- 
ing and swearing, and chattering like a hole full 
of young parrots, whilst away ran Tama' and his 
brother. A stranger who was presently passing 
by the house, pulled the bolts out of the door and 
window for them, and the crowd who had been 
shut into the house came pouring out of it. 

The next morning Toi' and Uenuku felt vexed 
indeed, for the escape of those they had taken as 
a payment for the fruit of their luxuriant poporo 
tree, and said, "If we had had the sense to kill 
them at once, they would never have escaped 
in this way. In the days which are coming, that 
fellow will return, seeking revenge for our having 
hung him up in the roof of the house." And 
before long Uenuku and Toi-te-kuatahi went to 
make war on Tama-te-kupua and his people, and 
some fell on both sides ; and at length a breach in 
the fortifications of the town of Houmai-tawhiti 
and of his sons was entered by a storming party of 



% 

THE DISSENSIONS AT HAWAIKI. 131 

Uenuku's force, and some of the fences and obstruc- 
tions were carried ; and the people of Houmai- 
tawhiti cried out, " Oh, Hou', oh, here are the 
enemy pressing their way in and Houmai- 
tawhiti shouted in reply, " That 's right ; let them 
in, let them in, till they reach the very threshold of 
the house of Houmai-tawhiti." Thrice his men 
called out this to Hou', and thrice did he answer 
them in the same manner. At last up rose Hou' 
with his sons ; then the struggle took place ; 
those of the enemy that were not slain were 
allowed to escape back out of the town, but many 
of the slain were left there, and their bodies were 
cut up, baked, and devoured. 

Then, indeed, a great crime was committed by 
Hou' and his family, and his warriors, in eating 
the bodies of those men, for they were their near 
relations, being descended from Tamatea-kai-ariki. 
Thence cowardice and fear seized upon the tribe of 
Hou': formerly they were all very brave indeed, 
but at last Hou' and all his tribe became cowardly, 
and fit for nothing, and Hou' and Whakaturia both 
died, but Tama-te-kapua and his children, and some 
of his relations, still lived, and he determined to 
make peace, that some remnant of his tribe might 
be saved ; and the peace was long preserved. 



THE LEGEND OF POUTINI AND 
WHAIAPU. 



THE DISCOVEKY OF NEW ZEALAND. 

Now pay attention to the cause of the contention 
which arose between Poutini and Whaiapu, which 
led them to emigrate to New Zealand. For a long 
time they both rested in the same place, and Hine-tu- 
a-hoanga, to whom the stone Whaiapu* belonged, 
became excessively enraged with Ngahue, and with 
his stone Poutini. "f* At last she drove Ngahue out 
and forced him to leave the place, and Ngahue de- 
parted and went to a strange land, taking his 
jasper. When Hine-tu-a-hoanga saw that he was 
departing with his precious stone, she followed 
after them, and Ngahue arrived at Tuhua with 
his stone, and Hine-tu-a-hoanga arrived and 
landed there at the same time with him, and 
began to drive him away again. Then Ngahue 
went to seek a place where his jasper stones might 
remain in peace, and he found in the sea this island 
Aotearoa (the northern island of New Zealand), 
and he thought he would land there. 

* Green jasper. 

f Obsidian, with which the natives grind down the jasper. 



DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND. 133 

Then lie thought again, lest he and his enemy 
should be too close to one another, and should 
quarrel again, that it would be better for him to go 
further off with his jasper, a very long way off. So 
he carried it off with him, and they coasted along, 
and at length arrived at Arahura (on the west coast 
of the middle island), and he made that an ever- 
lasting resting-place for his jasper ; then he broke 
off a portion of his jasper, and took it with him 
and returned, and as he coasted along he at length 
reached Wairere (believed to be upon the east 
coast of the northern island), and he visited Whan- 
gaparoa and Tauranga, and from thence he returned 
direct to Hawaiki, and reported that he had 
discovered a new country which produced the moa 
and jasper in abundance. He now manufactured 
sharp axes from his jasper ; two axes were made 
from it, Tutauru and Hau-hau-te-rangi. He manu- 
factured some portions of one piece of it into 
images for neck ornaments, and some portions into 
ear ornaments ; the name of one of these ear orna- 
ments was Kaukau-matua, which was recently in 
the possession of Te Heuheu, and was only lost in 
1846, when he was killed with so many of his 
tribe by a landslip. The axe Tutauru was only 
lately lost by Purahokura and his brother Reretai, 
who were descended from Tama-ihu-toroa. When 
Ngahue, returning, arrived again in Hawaiki, he 



134 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

found them all engaged in war, and when they 
heard his description of the beauty of this country 
of Aotea, some of them determined to come here. 



CONSTRUCTION OF CANOES TO EMIGRATE TO NEW ZEALAND. 

They then felled a totara tree in Rarotonga, 
which lies on the other side of Hawaiki, that they 
might build the Arawa from it. The tree was 
felled, and thus the canoe was hewn out from it and 
finished. The names of the men who built this 
canoe were, Rata, Wahie-roa, Ngahue, Parata, and 
some other skilful men, who helped to hew out the 
Arawa and to finish it. 

A chief of the name of Hotu-roa, hearing that the 
Arawa was built, and wishing to accompany them, 
came to Tama-te-kapua and asked him to lend him 
his workmen to hew out some canoes for him too, 
and they went and built and finished the Tainui 
and some other canoes. 

The workmen above mentioned are those who 
built the canoes in which our forefathers crossed the 
ocean to this island, to Aotea- roa. The names of 
the canoes were as follows : the Arawa was first 
completed, then Tainui, then Matatua, and Taki- 
tumu, and Kura-hau-po, and Toko-maru, and 
Matawhaorua. These are the names of the canoes 
in which our forefathers departed from Hawaiki, 



PREPARATIONS TO EMIGRATE. 



135 



and crossed to this island. When they had lashed 
the topsides on to the Tainui, Rata slew the son of 
Manaia, and hid his body in the chips and shavings 
of the canoes. The names of the axes with which 
they hewed out these canoes were Hauhau-te-Rangi 3 
and Tutauru. Tutauru was the axe with which 
they cut off the head of Uenuku. 

All these axes were made from the block of green 
stone brought back by Ngahue to Hawaiki, which 
was called " The fish of Ngahue/' He had pre- 
viously come to these islands from Hawaiki, when 
he was driven out from thence by Hine-tu-a-hoanga, 
whose fish or stone was Obsidian. From that cause 
Ngahue came to these islands ; the canoes which 
afterwards arrived here came in cod sequence of his 
discovery. 




THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 



When the canoes were built and ready for sea. 
they were dragged afloat, the separate lading of 
each canoe was collected and put on board, with 
all the crews. Tama-te-kapua then remembered 
that he had no skilful priest on board his canoe, 
and he thought the best thing he could do was 
to outwit Ngatoro-i-rangi, the chief who had 
command of the Tainui. So just as his canoe 
shoved off, he called out to Ngatoro, " I say, 
Ngatoro, just come on board my canoe, and per- 
form the necessary religious rites for me." Then 
the priest Ngatoro came on board, and Tama-te- 
kapua said to him, " You had better also call your 
wife, Kearoa on board, that she may make the 
canoe clean or common, with an offering of sea- 
weed to be laid in the canoe instead of an offering 
of fish, for you know the second fish caught in a 
canoe, or seaweed, or some substitute, ought to be 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 137 

offered for the females, the first for the males ; 
then my canoe will be quite common, for all the 
ceremonies will have been observed, which should 
be followed with canoes made by priests. Ngatoro 
assented to all this, and called his wife, and they 
both got into Tama's canoe. The very moment 
they were on board, Tama' called out to the men on 
board his canoe, " Heave up the anchors and make 
sail \" and he carried off with him Ngatoro and his 
wife, that he might have a priest and wise man on 
board his canoe. Then they up with the fore-sail, 
the main-sai], and the mizen, and away shot the 
canoe. 

Up then came Ngatoro from below, and said, 
" Shorten sail, that we may go more slowly, lest I 
miss my own canoe.''' And Tama' replied, " Oh, no, 
no ; wait a little, and your canoe wi]l follow after 
us." For a short time it kept near them, but 
soon dropped more and more astern, and when 
darkness overtook them, on they sailed, each canoe 
proceeding on its own course. 

Two thefts were upon this occasion perpetrated 
by Tama-te-kapua ; he carried off the wife of Ruaeo, 
and Ngatoro and his wife, on board the Arawa. He 
made a fool of Ruaeo too, for he said to him, " Oh, 
Rua', you, like a good fellow, just run back to the 
village and fetch me my axe Tutauru, I pushed it in 
under the sill of the window of my house." And 



138 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Rua' was foolish enough to run back to the house. 
Then off went Tama' with the canoe, and when 
Rua' came back again, the canoe was so far off that 
its sails did not look much bigger than little flies. 
So he fell to weeping for all his goods on board 
the canoe, and for his wife Whakaoti-rangi, whom 
Tama-te-kapua had carried off as a wife for himself. 
Tama-te-kapua committed these two great thefts 
when he sailed for these islands. Hence this pro- 
verb, "A descendant of Tama-te-kapua will steal 
anything he can." 

When evening came on, Rua' threw himself into 
the water, as a preparation for his incantations to 
recover Ms wife, and he then changed the stars of 
evening into the stars of morning, and those of the 
morning into the stars of the evening, and this was 
accomplished. In the meantime the Arawa scudded 
away far out on the ocean, and Ngatoro thought to 
himself, " What a rate this canoe goes at — what a 
vast space we have already traversed. I know 
what I'll do, 111 climb up upon the roof of the 
house which is built on the platform joining the 
two canoes, and try to get a glimpse of the land in 
the horizon, and ascertain whether we are near it, 
or very far off." But in the first place he felt some 
suspicions about his wife, lest Tama-te-kapua should 
steal her too, for he had found out what a treacher- 
ous person he was. So he took a string and tied 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 139 

one end of it to his wife's hair, and kept the 
other end of the string in his hand, and then he 
climbed up on the roof. He had hardly got on the 
top of the roof when Tama' laid hold of his wife, 
and he cunningly untied the end of the string which 
Ngatoro had fastened to her hair, and made it fast 
to one of the beams of the canoe, and Ngatoro feel- 
ing it tight thought his wife had not moved, and 
that it was still fast to her. At last Ngatoro came 
down again, and Tama-te-kapua heard the noise of 
his steps as he was coming, but he had not time to 
get the string tied fast to the hair of Kearoa's 
head again, but he jumped as fast as he could into 
his own berth, which was next to that of Ngatoro, 
and Ngatoro, to his surprise, found one end of the 
string tied fast to the beam of the canoe. 

Then he knew that his wife had been disturbed 
by Tama', and he asked her, saying, " Oh, wife, has 
not some one disturbed you V Then his wife re- 
plied to him, "Cannot you tell that from the string 
being fastened to the beam of the canoe?" And 
then he asked her, " Who was it V And she said, 
" Who was it, indeed ? Could it be any one else but 
Tama-te-kapua?" Then her husband said to her, 
" You are a noble woman indeed thus to confess 
this ; you have gladdened my heart by this confes- 
sion ; I thought after Tama' had carried us both off 
in this way, that he would have acted generously, and 



140 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY 



not loosely in this manner ; but, since he has dealt 
in this way, I will now have my revenge on him." 

Then that priest again went forth upon the roof 
of the house and stood there, and he called aloud to 
the heavens, in the same way that Bua' did, and he 
changed the stars of the evening into those of morn- 
ing, and he raised the winds that they should blow 
upon the prow of the canoe, and drive it astern, and 
the crew of the canoe were at their wits' end, and 
quite forgot their skill as seamen, and the canoe 
drew straight into the whirlpool, called " The throat 
of Te Parata/'* and dashed right into that whirlpool. 

The canoe became engulphed by the whirlpool, 
and its prow disappeared in it. In a moment the 
waters reached the first bailing place in the bows, 
in another second they reached the second bailing 
place in the centre, and the canoe now appeared to 
be going down into the whirlpool head foremost ; 
then up started Hei, but before he could rise they 
had already sunk far into the whirlpool. Next the 
rush of waters was heard by Ihenga, who slept 
forward, and he shouted out, ■" Oh, Ngatoro, oh, we 
are settling down head first. The pillow of your 
wife Kearoa has already fallen from under her 
head!" Ngatoro sat astern listening; the same 
cries of distress reached him a second time. Then 

* The people of New Zealand have another name for this whirl- 
pool ; they call it, " the steep descent where the world ends." 4 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 141 

up sprang Tama-te-kapua, and he in despair shouted 
out, " Oh, Ngatoro, Ngatoro, aloft there ! Do you 
hear ? The canoe is gone down so much by the 
bow, that Kearoa's pillow has rolled from under her 
head." The priest heard them, but neither moved 
nor answered until he heard the goods rolling from 
the decks and splashing into the water ; the crew 
meanwhile held on to the canoe with their hands 
with great difficulty, some of them having already 
fallen into the sea. 

When these things all took place, the heart of 
Ngatoro was moved with pity, for he heard, too, 
the shrieks and cries of the men, and the weeping 
of the women and children. Then up stood that 
mighty man again, and by his incantations changed 
the aspect of the heavens, so that the storm ceased, 
and he repeated another incantation to draw the 
canoe back out of the whirlpool, that is, to lift 
it up again. 

Lo, the canoe rose up from the whirlpool, float- 
ing rightly ; but, although the canoe itself thus 
floated out of the whirlpool, a great part of its 
lading had been thrown out into the water, a few 
things only were saved, and remained in the canoe. 
A great part of their provisions were lost as the 
canoe was sinking into the whirlpool. Thence 
comes the native proverb, if they can give a 
stranger but little food, or only make a present of 



142 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



a small basket of food, " Oh, it is the half-filled 
basket of Whakaoti-rangi, for she only managed to 
save a very small part of her provisions/' Then 
they sailed on, and landed at Whanga-Paraoa, in 
Aotea here. As they drew near to land, they 
saw with surprise some pohutukawa trees of the 
sea-coast, covered with beautiful red flowers, and 
the still water reflected back the redness of the 
trees. 

Then one of the chiefs of the canoe cried out to 
his messmates, " See there, red ornaments for the 
head are much more plentiful in this country than 
in Hawaiki, so 1 11 throw my red head ornaments 
into the water and, so saying, he threw them into 
the sea. The name of that man was Tauninihi ; 
the name of the red head ornament he threw into 
the sea was Taiwhakaea. The moment they got 
on shore they run to gather the pohutukawa 
flowers, but no sooner did they touch them than 
the flowers fell to pieces ; then they found out that 
these red head ornaments were nothing but flowers. 
All the chiefs on board the Arawa were then troubled 
that they should have been so foolish as to throw 
away their red head ornaments into the sea. Very 
shortly afterwards the ornaments of Tauninihi were 
found by Mahina on the beach of Mahifci. As soon 
as Tauninihi heard they had been picked up, he ran 
to Mahina to get them again, but Mahina would 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 143 

not give them up to him ; thence this proverb for 
anything which has been lost and is found by 
another person, " I will not give it up, 3 1 is the red 
head ornament which Mahina found/'' 

As soon as the party landed at Whanga-Paraoa, 
they planted sweet potatoes, that they might grow 
there ; and they are still to be found growing on 
the cliffs at that place. 

Then the crew, wearied from the voyage, wan- 
dered idly along the shore, and there *they found 
the fresh carcase of a sperm whale stranded upon 
the beach. The Tainui had already arrived in the 
same neighbourhood, although they did not at first 
see that canoe nor the people who had come in it ; 
when, however, they met, they began to dispute as 
to who had landed first and first found the dead 
whale, and as to which canoe it consequently be- 
longed ; so, to settle the question, they agreed to 
examine the sacred place which each party had set 
up to return thanks in to the gods for their safe 
arrival, that they might see which had been longest 
built ; and, doing so, they found that the posts of 
the sacred place put up by the Arawa were quite 
green, whilst the posts of the sacred place set up 
by the Tainui had evidently been carefully dried 
over the fire before they had been fixed in the 
ground. The people who had come in the Tainui 
also showed part of a rope which they had made 



144 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



fast to its jaw-bone. When these things were seen ; it 
was admitted that the whale belonged to the people 
who came in the Tainui, and it was surrendered to 
them. And the people in the Arawa, determining 
to separate from those in the Tainui, selected some 
of their crew to explore the country in a north-west 
direction, following the coast line. The canoe then 
coasted along, the land party following it along 
the shore; this was made up of 140 men, whose 
chief was •Taikehu, and these gave to a place the 
name of Te Ranga of Taikehu. 

The Tainui left Whanga-Paraoa * shortly after the 
Arawa, and, proceeding nearly in the same direction 
as the Arawa, made the Gulf of Hauraki, and then 
coasted along to Rakau-mangamanga, or Cape Brett, 
and to the island with an arched passage through it, 
called Motukokako, which lies off the cape ; thence 
they ran along the coast to Whiwhia, and to Te 
Aukanapanapa, and to Muri-whenua, or the country 
near the North Cape. Finding that the land ended 
there, they returned again along the coast until they 
reached the Tamaki, and landed there, and after- 
wards proceeded up the creek to Tau-oma, or the 
portage, where they were surprised to see flocks of 
sea-gulls and oyster-catchers passing over from the 
westward ; so they went off to explore the country 

* Whanga-Paraoa, the bay of the sperm whale, so called from the 
whale found there. 



EIESTESS PERFORMING INCANTATIONS. 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 145 

in that direction, and to their great surprise found 
a large sheet of water lying immediately behind 
them, so they determined to drag their canoes over 
the portage at a place they named Otahuhu, and to 
launch them again on the vast sheet of salt-water 
which they had found. 

The first canoe which they hauled across was the 
Toko-maru — that they got across without difficulty. 
They next began to drag the Tainui over the 
isthmus ; they hauled away at it in vain, they 
could not stir it ; for one of the wives of Hoturoa, 
named Marama-kiko-hura, who was unwilling that 
the tired crews should proceed further on this new 
expedition, had by her enchantments fixed it so 
firmly to the earth that no human strength could 
stir it ; so they hauled, they hauled, they excited 
themselves with cries and cheers, but they hauled 
in vain, they cried aloud in vain, they could not 
move it. When their strength was quite exhausted 
by these efforts, then another of the wives of Ho- 
turoa, more learned in magic and incantations than 
Marama-kiko-hura, grieved at seeing the exhaustion 
and distress of her people, rose up, and chanted 
forth an incantation far more powerful than that 
of Marama-kiko-hura ; then at once the canoe 
glided easily over the carefully-laid skids, and it 
soon floated securely upon the harbour of Manuka. 
The willing crews urged on the canoes with 

H 



146 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



their paddles ; they soon discovered the mouth of 
the harbour upon the west coast, and passed out 
through it into the open sea ; they coasted along 
the western coast to the southwards, and discover- 
ing the small port of Kawhia, they entered it, 
and, hauling up their canoe, fixed themselves there 
for the time, whilst the Arawa was left at Ma- 
ketu. 

"We now return to the Arawa. We left the 
people of it at Tauranga. That canoe next floated at 
Motiti ; * they named that place after a spot in Ha- 
waiki (because there was no firewood there). Next 
Tia, to commemorate his name, called the place 
now known by the name of Rangiuru, Takapu-o- 
tapui-ika-nui-a-Tia. Then Hei stood up and called 
out, " 1 name that place Takapu-o-wai-tahanui-a- 
Hei the name of that place is now Otawa. Then 
stood up Tama-te-kapua, and pointing to the place 
now called the Heads of Maketu, he called out, 
" I name that place Te Kuraetanga-o-te-ihu-o-Tama- 
te-kapua." Next Kahu called a place, after his 
name, Motiti- nui-a-Kahu. 

Ruaeo, who had already arrived at Maketu, 
started up. He was the first to arrive there in his 
canoe — the Pukeatea-wai-nui — for he had been left 
behind by the Arawa, and his wife Whakaoti-rangi 

* Kei Motiti koe e noho ana ; — " I suppose you are at Motiti, as 
you can find no firewood." 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 147 

liad been carried off by Tama-te-Kapua, and after 
the Arawa had left he had sailed in his own canoe 
for these islands, and landed at Maketu, and his 
canoe reached land the first ; well, he started up, 
cast his line into the sea, with the hooks attached 
to it, and they got fast in one of the beams of the 
Arawa, and it was pulled ashore by him (whilst 
the crew were asleep), and the hundred and forty 
men who had accompanied him stood upon the 
beach of Maketu, with skids all ready laid, and the 
Arawa was by them dragged upon the shore in the 
night, and left there ; and Ruaeo seated himself 
under the side of the Arawa, and played upon his 
flute, and the music woke his wife, and she said, 
I Dear me, that 's Rua' ! " and when she looked, 
there he was sitting under the side of the canoe ; 
and they passed the night together. 

At last Rua' said, " O mother of my children, 
go back now to your new husband, and presently 
I '11 play upon the flute and putorino, so that botli 
you and Tama-te-Kapua may hear. Then do you 
say to Tama-te-Kapua, ' ! la, I had a dream in 
the night that I heard Rua playing a tune upon 
his flute,' and that will make him so jealous that 
he will give you a blow, and then you can run 
away from him again, as if you were in a rage and 
hurt, and you can come to me." 

Then Whakaoti-rangi returned, and lay down 

H 2 



148 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



by Tama-te-kapua, and she did everything exactly 
as Rua' had told her, and Tama' began to beat her 
(and she ran away from him). Early in the 
morning Rua' performed incantations, by which he 
kept all the people in the canoe in a profound sleep, 
and whilst they still slept from his enchantments, 
the sun rose, and mounted high up in the heavens. 
In the forenoon, Rua' gave the canoe a heavy 
blow with his club ; they all started up ; it was 
almost noon, and when they looked down over the 
edge of their canoe, there were the hundred and 
forty men of Rua' sitting under them, all beau- 
tifully dressed with feathers, as if they had been 
living on the Gannet Island, in the channel of 
Karewa, where feathers are so abundant ; and when 
the crew of the Arawa heard this, they all rushed 
upon deck, and saw Rua' standing in the midst of 
his one hundred and forty warriors. 

Then Rua' shouted out as he stood, " Come 
here, Tama-te-kapua ; let us two fight the battle, 
you and I alone. If you are stronger than I am, 
well and good, let it be so ; if I am stronger than 
you are, 1 11 dash you to the earth/' 

Up sprang then the hero Tama-te-kapua ; he held 
a carved two-handed sword, a sword the handle of 
which was decked with red feathers. Rua' held a 
similar veapon. Tama' first struck a fierce blow at 
Rua". Rua' parried it, and it glanced harmlessly 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 



149 



off ; then Rua' threw away his sword, and seized 
both the arms of Tama-te-kapua ; he held his arms 
and his sword, and dashed him to the earth. Tama' 
half rose, and was again dashed down ; once more 
he almost rose, and was thrown again. Still Tama' 
fiercely struggled to rise and renew the tight. For 
the fourth time he almost rose up, then Rua', 
overcome with rage, took a heap of vermin (this he 
had prepared for the purpose, to cover Tama' with 
insult and shame), and rubbed them on Tama-te- 
kapua's head and ear, and they adhered so fast 
that Tama' tried in vain to get them out. 

Then Rua' said, " There, I 've beaten you ; now 
keep the woman, as a payment for the insults I Ve 
heaped upon you, and for having been beaten by 
me/' But Tama' did not hear a word he said ; 
he was almost driven mad with the pain and 
itching, and could do nothing but stand scratching 
and rubbing his head ; whilst Rua' departed with 
his hundred and forty men, to seek some other 
dwelling-place for themselves ; if they had turned 
against Tama' and his people to fight against them, 
they would have slain them all. 

These men were giants — Tama-te-kapua was 
nine feet high, Rua' was eleven feet high ; there 
have been no men since that time so tall as those 
heroes. The only man of these later times who 
was as tall as these was Tu-hou-rangi : he was nine 
feet high ; he was six feet up to the arm-pits. This 



150 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



generation have seen bis bones, they used to be 
always set up by the priests in the sacred places 
when they were made high places for the sacred 
sacrifices of the natives, at the times the potatoes 
and sweet potatoes were dug up, and when the 
fishing season commenced, and when they attacked 
an enemy ; then might be seen the people collect- 
ing, in their best garments, and with their orna- 
ments, on the days when the priests exposed Tu-hou- 
rangi's bones to their view. At the time that the 
island Mokoia, in the lake of Roto-rua, was stormed 
and taken by the Nga-Puhi, they probably carried 
those bones off, for they have not since been seen. 

After the dispute between Tama-te-kapua and 
Rua' took place, Tama' and his party dwelt at 
Maketu, and their descendants after a little time 
spread to other places. Ngatoro-i-rangi went, how- 
ever, about the country, and where he found dry 
valleys, stamped on the earth, and brought forth 
springs of water ; he also visited the mountains, 
and placed Patupaiarehe, or fairies, there, and then 
returned to Maketu and dwelt there. 

After this a dispute arose between Tama-te- 
kapua and Kahu-rnata-momoe, and in consequence 
of that disturbance, Tama' and Ngatoro removed 
to Tauranga, and found Taikehu living there, and 
collecting food for them (by fishing), and that place 
was called by them Te Ranga-a-Taikehu ; * it lies 
* The fishing bank of Taikehu. 



CHIEF LYING I N STATE. 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 151 



beyond Motu-hoa ; then they departed from Tau- 
ranga, and stopped at Kati-kati, where they ate 
food. Tama's men devoured the food very fast, 
whilst he kept on only nibbling his, therefore they 
applied this circumstance as a name for the place, 
and called it " Kati-kati-o-Tama-te-kapua/' the nib- 
bling of Tama-te-kapua ; then they halted at Whaka- 
hau, so called because they here ordered food to be 
cooked, which they did not stop to eat, but went 
right on with JSfgatoro, and this circumstance gave 
its name to the place ; and they went on from 
place to place till they arrived at Whitianga, which 
they so called from their crossing the river there, 
and they continued going from one place to another 
till they came to Tangiaro, and JNTga,toro stuck up 
a stone and left it there, and they dwelt in Moe- 
hau and Hau-raki. 

They occupied those places as a permanent resi- 
dence, and Tama-te-kapua died, and was buried 
there. When he was dying, he ordered his children 
to return to Maketu, to visit his relations ; and they 
assented, and went back. If the children of 
Tama-te-kapua had remained at Hau-raki, that 
place would now have been left to them as a pos- 
session. 

Tama-te-kapua, when dying, told his children 
where the precious ear-drop Kaukau-matua was, 
which he had hidden under the window of his 



152 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



house ; and his children returned with Ngatoro to 
Maketu, and dwelt there ; and as soon as Ngatoro 
arrived, he went to the waters to bathe himself, as . 
he had come there in a state of tapu, upon account 
of his having buried Tama-te-kapua, and having 
bathed, he then became free from the tapu and 
clean. 

Ngatoro then took the daughter of Ihenga to 
wife, and he went and searched for the precious 
ear-drop Kaukau-matua, and found it, as Tama-te- 
kapua had told them. After this the wife of 
Kahu-mata-momoe conceived a child. 

At this time Ihenga, taking some dogs with him 
to catch kiwi's* with, went to Paritangi by way of 
Hakomiti, and a kiwi was chased by one of his 
dogs, and caught in a lake, and the dog eat some 
of the fish and shell-fish in the lake, after diving in 
the water to get them, and returned to its master 
carrying the captured kiwi in its mouth, and on 
reaching its master, it dropped the kiwi, and 
vomited up the raw fish and shell-fish which it 
had eaten. 

"When Ihenga saw his dog wet all over, and the 
fish it had vomited up, he knew there was a lake 
there, and was extremely glad, and returned joy- 
fully to Maketu, and there he had the usual reli- 
gious ceremonies which follow the birth of a child 

* Apterix Australis. 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 153 

performed over his wife and the child she had given 
birth to ; and when this had been done, he went 
to explore the country which he had previously 
visited with his dog. 

To his great surprise he discovered a lake : it was 
Lake Roto-iti ; he left a mark there to show that he 
claimed it as his own. He went further and dis- 
covered Lake Roto-rua ; he saw that its waters were 
running ; he left there also a mark to show that he 
claimed the lake as his own. As he went along 
the side of the lake, he found a man occupying the 
ground; then he thought to himself that he would 
endeavour to gain possession of it by craft, so he 
looked out for a spot tit for a sacred place, where 
men could offer up their prayers, and for another 
spot fit for a sacred place, where nets could be 
hung up , and he found fit spots ; then he took 
suitable stones to surround the sacred place with, 
and old pieces of seaweed, looking as if they had 
years ago been employed as offerings, and he went 
into the middle of the shrubbery, thick with boughs 
of the taha shrub, of the koromuka, and of the 
karamu ; there he stuck up the posts of the sacred 
place in the midst of the shrubs, and tied bunches 
of flax-leaves on the posts, and having done this, 
he went to visit the village of the people who lived 
there. 

They saw some one approaching, and cried out, 

H 3 



I 

154 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

"A stranger, a stranger, is coming here V As soon 
as Ihenga heard these cries, he sat down npon the 
ground, and then, without waiting for the people of 
the place to begin the speeches, he jumped up, and 
commenced to speak thus : " What theft is this, what 
theft is this of the people here, that they are taking 
away my land ? " for he saw that they had their 
store-houses full of prepared fern-roots and of dried 
fish, and shell-fish, and their heaps of fishing-nets, 
so as he spoke, he appeared to swell with rage, and 
his throat appeared to grow large from passion as he 
talked — "Who authorised you to come here, and 
take possession of my place ? Be off, be off, be 
off! leave alone the place of the man who speaks 
to you, to whom it has belonged for a very long 
time, for a very long time indeed/' 

Then Maru-punga-nui, the son of Tua-Koto-rua, 
the man to whom the place really belonged, said to 
Ihenga, "It is not your place, it belongs to me ; if 
it belongs to you, where is your village, where is 
your sacred place, where is your net, where are 
your cultivations and gardens?" 

Ihenga answered him, " Come here and see 
them/" So they went together, and ascended a 
hill, and Ihenga said, " See there, there is my net 
hanging up against the ricks but it was no such 
thing, it was only a mark like a net hanging up, 
caused by part of a cliff having slipped away; 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 155 

" and there are the posts of the pine round my vil- 
lage " but there was really nothing but some old 
stumps of trees ; " look there too at my sacred 
place a little beyond yours ; and now come with 
me, and see my sacred place, if you are quite 
sure you see my village, and my fishing-net — come 
along/' So they went together, and there he saw 
the sacred place standing in the shrubbery, until at 
last he believed Ihenga, and the place was all given 
up to Ihenga, and he took possession of it and 
lived there, and the descendants of Tua-Roto-rua 
departed from that place, and a portion of them, 
under the chiefs Kawa-arero and Mata-aho, occu- 
pied the island of Mokoia, in Lake Roto-rua. 

At this time Ngatoro again went to stamp on 
the earth, and to bring forth springs in places 
where there was no water, and came out on the 
great central plains which surround Lake Taupo, 
where a piece of large cloak made of kiekie-leaves 
was stripped off by the bushes, and the strips took 
root, and became large trees, nearly as large as 
the Kahikatea tree (they are called Painanga, and 
many of them are growing there still). 

Whenever he ascended a hill, he left marks there, 
to show that he claimed it ; the marks he left were 
fairies. Some of the generation now living have 
seen these spirits ; they are malicious spirits. If you 
take embers from an oven in which food has been 



156 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



cooked, and use them for a fire in a house, these 
spirits become offended ; although there be many 
people sleeping in that house, not one of them 
could escape (the fairies would, -whilst they slept, 
press the whole of them to death). 

Ngatoro went straight on and rested at Taupo, 
and he beheld that the summit of Mount Tongariro 
was covered with snow, and he was seized with a 
longing to ascend it, and he climbed up, saying 
to his companions who remained below at their 
encampment, " Remember now, do not you, who I 
am going to leave behind, taste food from the time 
I leave you until I return, when we will all feast 
together/' Then he began to ascend the moun- 
tain, but he had not quite got to the summit 
when those he had left behind began to eat food, 
and he therefore found the greatest difficulty in 
reaching the summit of the mountain, and the hero 
nearly perished in the attempt. 

At last he gathered strength, and thought he 
could save himself, if he prayed aloud to the gods 
of Hawaiki to send fire to him, and to produce 
a volcano upon the mountain ; (and his prayer was 
answered,) and fire was given to him, and the 
mountain became a volcano, and it came by the 
way of Whakaari, or White Island, of Mau-tohora, 
of Okakaru, of Roto-ehu, of Roto-iti, of Roto-rua, 
of Tara-wera, of Pae-roa, of Orakeikorako, and of 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 



157 



Taupo ; it came right underneath the earth, spouting 
up at all the above-mentioned places, and ascended 
right up Tongariro, to him who was sitting upon the 
top of the mountain, and thence the hero was re- 
vived again, and descended, and returned to Maketu, 
and dwelt there. 

The Arawa had been laid up by its crew at 
Maketu, where they landed, and the people who had 
arrived with the party in the Arawa spread themselves 
over the country, examining it, some penetrating to 
Roto-rua, some to Taupo, some to Whanganui, some 
to Ruatahuna, and no one was left at Maketu but 
Hei' and his son, and Tia and his son, and the 
usual place of residence of Ngatoro-i-rangi was on 
the island of Motiti. The people who came with 
the Tainui were still in Kawhia, where they had 
landed. 

One of their chiefs, named Rauraati, heard that 
the Arawa was laid up at Maketu, so he started 
with all his own immediate dependants, and reaching 
Tauranga, halted there, and in the evening again 
pressed on towards Maketu, and reached the bank 
of the river, opposite that on which the Arawa was 
lying, thatched over with reeds and dried branches 
and leaves ; then he slung a dart, the point of 
which was bound round with combustible mate- 
rials, over to the other side of the river ; the point 
of the dart was lighted, and it stuck right in the 



158 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



dry thatch of the roof over the Arawa, and the 
shed of dry stuff taking fire, the canoe was entirely 
destroyed. 

On the night that the Arawa was burnt by 
Raumati, there was not a person left at Maketu ; 
they were all scattered in the forests, at Tapu-ika, 
and at Waitaha, and Ngatoro-i-rangi was at that 
moment at his residence on the island of Motiti. 
The pa, or fortified village at Maketu, was left 
quite empty, without a soul in it. The canoe was 
lying alone, with none to watch it ; they had all 
gone to collect food of different kinds — it hap- 
pened to be a season in which food was very 
abundant, and from that cause the people were all 
scattered in small parties about the country, fishing, 
fowling, and collecting food. 

As soon as the next morning dawned, Raumati 
could see that the fortified village of Maketu was 
empty, and not a person left in it, so he and his 
armed followers at once passed over the river 
and entered the village, which they found entirely 
deserted. 

At night, as the Arawa burnt, the people, who 
were scattered about in the various parts of the 
country, saw the fire, for the bright glare of the 
gleaming flames was reflected in the sky, lighting 
up the heavens, and they all thought that it was the 
village at Maketu that had been burnt ; but those 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 159 

persons who were near Waitaha and close to the 
sea-shore near where the Arawa was, at once said, 
" That must be the Arawa which is burning ; it 
must have been accidentally set on fire by some of 
our friends who have come to visit us." The next 
day they went to see what had taken place, and 
when they reached the place where the Arawa had 
been lying, they found it had been burnt by an 
enemy, and that nothing but the ashes of it were 
left them. Then a messenger started to all the 
places where the people were scattered about, to 
warn them of what had taken place, and they then 
first heard the bad news. 

The children of Hou, as they discussed in their 
house of assembly the burning of the Arawa, re- 
membered the proverb of their father, which he 
spake to them as they were on the point of leaving 
Hawaiki, and when he bid them farewell. 

He then said to them, " my children, Mako, 
Tia, Hei, hearken to these my words : — 

" There was but one great chief in Hawaiki, 
and that was Whakatauihu. Now do you, my 
dear children, depart in peace, and when you 
reach the place you are going to, do not follow 
after the deeds of Tu', the god of war ; if you do 
you will perish, as if swept off by the winds, 
but rather follow quiet and useful occupations, then 
you will die tranquilly a natural death. Depart, 



160 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and dwell in peace with all, leave war and strife 
behind you here. Depart, and dwell in peace. It is 
war and its evils which are driving you from hence ; 
dwell in peace where you are going, conduct your- 
selves like men, let there be no quarrelling amongst 
you, but build up a great people." 

These were the last words which Houmai-ta-whiti 
addressed to his children, and they ever kept these 
sayings of their father firmly fixed in their hearts. 
" Depart in peace to explore new homes for your- 
selves/' 

Uenuku perhaps gave no such parting words of ad- 
vice to his children, when they left him for this coun- 
try, because they brought war and its evils with them 
from the other side of the ocean to New Zealand. 
But, of course, when Raumati burnt the Arawa, 
the descendants of Houmai-ta-whiti could not help 
continually considering what they ought to do, whe- 
ther they should declare war upon account of the 
destruction of their canoe, or whether they should 
let this act pass by without notice. They kept 
these thoughts always close in mind, and impatient 
feelings kept ever rising up in their hearts. They 
could not help saying to one another, " It was upon 
account of war and its consequences, that we de- 
serted our own country, that we left our fathers, 
our homes, and our people, and war and evil are 
following after us here. Yet we cannot remain 



THE VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. 161 

patient under such an injury, every feeling urges us 
to revenge this wrong/' 

At last they made an end of deliberation, and 
unanimously agreed that they would declare war, 
to obtain compensation for the evil act of Kaumati 
in burning the Arawa ; and then commenced the 
great war which was waged between those who 
arrived in the Arawa and those who arrived in 
the Tainui. 



THE .CURSE OF MANAIA. 



(KO MANAIA, KO KUIWAI.) 

When the Tainui and the Arawa sailed away 
from Hawaiki with Ngatoro-i-rangi on board, he 
left behind him his younger sister, Kuiwai, who was 
married to a powerful chief named Manaia. Some 
time after the canoes had left, a great meeting of 
all the people of his tribe was held by Manaia, to 
remove a tapu, and when the religious part of the 
ceremony was ended, the women cooked food for 
the strangers. 

When their ovens were opened, the food in the 
oven of Kuiwai, the wife of Manaia, and sister of 
Ngatoro-i-rangi, was found to be much under- 
done, and Manaia was very angry with his wife, 
and gave her a severe beating, and cursed, saying, 
" Accursed be your head ; are the logs of firewood 
as sacred as the bones of your brother, that you 
were so sparing of them as not to put into the fire 



THE CURSE OF MANAIA. 



163 



in which the stones were heated enough to make 
them red hot? Will you dare to do the like 
again ? If you do I '11 serve the flesh of your 
brother in the same way, it shall frizzle on the red- 
hot stones of Waikorora." 

And his poor wife was quite overcome with 
shame, and burst out crying, and went on sobbing 
and weeping all the time she was taking the under- 
done food out of the oven, and when she had put 
it in baskets, and carried them up to her husband, 
and laid them before him, she eat nothing herself, 
but went on one side and cried bitterly, and then 
retired and hid herself in the house. 

And just before night closed in on them, she 
cast her garments on one side, and girded herself 
with a new sash made from the young shoots of 
the toetoe, and stood on the threshold, and spread 
out her gods, Kahukura, Itupawa, and Rongomai, 
and she and her daughter, and her sister Haungaroa, 
stood before them, and the appearance of the gods 
was most propitious ; and when her incantations 
were ended, she said to her daughter, " My child, 
your journey will be a most fortunate one/' The 
gods were then by her bound up in cloths, and 
she hung them up again, and returned into the 
house. 

She then said to her daughter, " Now depart, 
and when you reach your uncle Ngatoro, and your 



164 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



other relations, tell them that they have been 
cursed by Manaia, because the food in my oven was 
not cooked upon the occasion of a great assembly 
for taking off a tapu, and that he then said, * Are 
the logs in the forest as sacred as the bones of 
your brother, that you are afraid to use them in 
cooking ; or are the stones of the desert the kid- 
neys of Ngatoro-i-rangi, that you don't heat them ; 
by-and-bye 1 11 frizzle the flesh of your brother on 
red-hot stones taken from Waikorora/ Now, my 
child, depart to your uncle and relations ; be quick, 
this is the season of the wind of Pungawere, which 
will soon waft them here." 

The women then took by stealth the gods of the 
people, that is to say, Maru, and Te Iho-o-te-rangi, 
and Rongomai, and Itupawa, and Hangaroa, and 
they had no canoe for their journey, but these gods 
served them as a canoe to cross the sea. For the 
first canoes which had left Hawaiki for New Zea- 
land carried no gods for human beings with them ; 
they only carried the gods of the sweet potatoes 
and of fish, they left behind them the gods for 
mortals, but they brought away with them prayers, 
incantations, and a knowledge of enchantments, for 
these things were kept secret in their minds, being 
learnt by heart, one from another. 

Then the girl and her companions took with them 
Kahukura, and Itupawa, and Rongomai, and Maru, 



THE CURSE OF MANAIA. 



165 



and the other gods, and started on their journey ; 
altogether there were five women, and they jour- 
neyed and journeyed towards New Zealand, and, 
borne up by the gods, they traversed the vast ocean 
till at last they landed on the burning island of 
Whakaari, and when daylight appeared, they floated 
again on the waters, and finally landed on the north- 
ern island of New Zealand, at Tawhiuwhiu, and 
went by an inland route, and stopped to eat food at 
a place whence they had a good view over the plains, 
and after the rest of the party had done eating, 
Haungaroa still went on, and two of her compa- 
nions teased her, saying : " Holloa, Haungaroa, what 
a long time you continue eating and those 
plains have ever since been called Kaingoroa, or 
Kaingoroa-o-Haungaroa (the long meal of Haun- 
garoa). Haungaroa, who was much provoked with 
the two women who thus teased her, smote them 
on the face, whereupon they fled from her, and 
Haungaroa pursued them a long way, but she pur- 
sued in vain, they would not come back to her, so 
by her enchantments she changed them into Ti 
trees, which stand on the plains whilst travellers 
approach them, but which move from place to place 
when they attempt to get close (and the natives 
believe that the trees are there at the present 
day). 

Then the other three women continued their 



166 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



journey, and they at length reached the summit of 
a hill, and sat down there to rest themselves, 
and whilst they were resting, Haungaroa thought 
of her mother, and love for her overcame her, and 
she wept aloud — and that place has ever since been 
called Te Tangihanga, or the place of weeping. 

After they had rested for some time, they con- 
tinued their journey, until they reached the open 
summit of another high hill, which they named 
Piopio, and from thence they saw the beautiful lake 
of Roto-rua lying at their feet, and they descended 
towards it, and came down upon the geyser, which 
spouts up its jets of boiling water at the foot of 
the mountain, and they reached the lake itself, and 
wound round it along its sandy shores ; then leaving 
the lake behind them, they struck off towards 
Maketu, and at last reached that place also, coming 
out of the forests upon the sea-coast, close to the 
village of Tuhoro, and when they saw the people 
there, they called out to them — " Whereabout is 
the residence of Ngatoro-i-rangi ? " And the people 
answered them, " He lives near the large elevated 
storehouse which you see erected on the hill 
there ; and the niece of Ngatoro-i-rangi saw the 
fence which surrounded his place, and she walked 
straight on towards the wicket of the fortification ; 
she would not however pass in through it like a 
common person, but climbed the posts, and clam- 



THE CURSE OF MANAIA. 



167 



bered into the fortress over its wooden defences, 
and having got inside, went straight on to the house 
of Ngatoro-i-rangi, entered it, and going right up 
to the spot which was sacred, from his sitting on it, 
she seated herself down there. 

When Ngatori-i-rangi's people saw this, one of 
them ran off with all speed to tell his master, who 
was then at work with some of his servants on his 
farm, and having found Mm he said, " There is 
a stranger just arrived at your residence, who 
carries a travelling-bag as if she had come from a 
long journey, and she would not come in at the 
gate of the fortress, but climbed right over the 
wooden defences, and has quietly laid her travelling- 
bag upon the very roof of your sacred house, and 
has walked up and seated herself in the very seat 
that your sacred person generally occupies/' 

When the servant had ended his story, Ngatoro 
at once guessed who this stranger from a distance 
must be, and said, "It is my niece and he then 
asked, " Where is Te Kehu ? " and they told him, 
" He is a/t work in his plantation of sweet pota- 
toes." And he bid them fetch him at once, and to 
be quick about it ; and when he arrived they all 
went together to the place where his niece was, and 
when he reached her, he at once led her before the 
altar, and she gave them the gods which she had 
brought with her from Hawaiki. 



168 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Then she said to them, " Come now, and let us 
be cleansed by diving in running water, and let 
the ceremony of Whangai-horo be performed over 
us, for you have been cursed by Manahua and his 
tribe." 

When they heard this they cried aloud, and tore 
off their clothes, and ran to a running stream and 
plunged into it, and dashed water over themselves, 
and the priests chanted the proper incantations, 
and performed all the prescribed ceremonies ; and 
when these were finished they left the stream, and 
went towards the village again, and the priests 
chanted incantations for cleansing the court-yard of 
the fortress from the defilement of the curse of 
Manaia ; but the incantations for this purpose have 
not been handed down to the present generation. 

The priests next dug a long pit, termed the pit 
of wrath, into which by their enchantments they 
might bring the spirits of their enemies, and hang 
them and destroy them there ; and when they had 
dug the pit, muttering the necessary incantations, 
they took large shells in their hands to scrape the 
spirits of their enemies into the pit with, whilst 
they muttered enchantments ; and when they had 
done this, they scraped the earth into the pit again 
to cover them up, and beat down the earth with 
their hands, and crossed the pit with enchanted 
cloths, and wove baskets of flax-leaves, to hold the 



THE CUESE OF MANAIA. 



169 



spirits of the foes which they had thus destroyed, 
and each of these acts they accompanied with pro- 
per spells. 

The religious ceremonies being all ended, they 
sat down, and Ngatoro-i-rangi wept over his niece, 
and then they spread food before the travellers ; 
and when they had finished their meal they all 
collected in the house of Ngatoro-i-rangi, and the 
old men began to question the strangers, saying, 
"What has brought you here?" Then Kuiwai's 
daughter said, " A curse which Manaia uttered 
against you ; for when they had finished making his 
sacred place for him, and the females were cooking 
food for the strangers who attended the ceremony, 
the food in Kuiwai's oven was not well cooked, and 
Manaia cursed her and you, saying, 1 Is firewood 
as sacred as the bones of your brethren, that you 
fear to burn it in an oven ? I TL yet make the flesh 
of your brothers hiss upon red-hot stones brought 
from Waikorora, and heated to warm the oven in 
which they shall be cooked/ That curse is the 
curse that brought me here, for my mother told me 
to hasten to you." 

When Ngatoro-i-rangi heard this, he was very 
wroth, and he in his turn cursed Manaia, saying, 
" Thus shall it be done unto you — your flesh shall 
be cooked with stones brought from Maketu." Then 
he told all his relations and people to search early 

I 



170 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



the next morning for a large Totara-tree, from 
which they might build a canoe, as they had no 
canoe since Raumati had burnt the Arawa. 

Then the people all arose very early the next 
morning, and with them were the chosen band of 
one hundred and forty warriors, and they went 
out to search for a large Totara-tree, and Kuiwai's 
daughter went with them, and she found a great 
Totara-tree fallen down, and nearly buried in the 
earth ; so they dug it out, and they framed a large 
canoe from it, which they named " The Totara-tree, 
dug from the earth and they hauled it down to 
the shore, and, launching it, embarked, and paddled 
out to sea, and the favourable wind of Punga- 
were was blowing strong, and it blew so for seven 
days and nights, and wafted them across the ocean, 
and at the end of that time they had again reached 
the shores of Hawaiki. 

The name of the place at which they landed in 
Hawaiki was Tara-i-whenua ; they landed at night- 
time, and drew their canoe up above high- water 
mark, and laid it in the thickets, that none might 
see that strangers had arrived. 

Ngatoro-i-rangi then went at once to a fortified 
village named Whaitiri-ka-papa, and when he 
arrived there he walked carelessly up to the house 
of Kuiwai, and peeping in at the door, said 
that she was wanted outside for a minute ; and 



THE CURSE OF MANAIA. 



171 



she, knowing his voice, came out to him imme- 
diately ; and Ngatoro-i-rangi questioned her, saying, 
" Have you anything to say to me, that I ought to 
know V And she replied, " The whole tribe of Ma- 
naia are continually occupied in praying to their 
gods, at the sacred place ; they pray to them to 
bring you and your tribe here, dead ; perhaps 
their incantations may now have brought you 
here/' Then Ngatoro asked her, " In what part 
of the heavens is the sun when they go to the 
sacred place ?" and she answered, " They go there 
early in the morning/' Then Ngatoro-i-rangi asked 
her again, "Where are they all in the evening?" 
and she replied, "In the evening they collect in 
numbers in their villages for the night, in the 
morning they disperse about/' Then, just as 
Ngatoro-i-rangi was going, he said to her, " At 
the dawn of morning climb up on the roof of your 
house that you may have a good view, and watch 
what takes place/' Having thus spoken, he re- 
turned to the main body of his party. 

Then Ngatoro related to them all that his sister 
had told him; and when they had heard this, Tan- 
garoa, one of his chiefs, said, " My counsel is, that 
we storm their fortress this night f but then stood 
up Eangitu, another chief, and said, "Nay, but 
rather let us attack it in the morning." Now arose 
Ngatoro, and he spake aloud to them and said, 

I 2 



172 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



" I agree with neither of you. We must go to the 
sacred place, and strike our noses until they bleed 
and we are covered with blood, and then we must 
lie on the ground like dead bodies, every man with 
his weapon hid under him, and their priests will 
imagine that their enchantments have brought us 
here and slain us; so shall we surprise them/' On 
hearing these words from their leader they all 
arose, and following him in a body to the court- 
yard of the sacred place, they found that the foolish 
priests had felt so sure of compelling their spirits 
by enchantments to bring Ngatoro and his tribe 
there, and to slay them for them, that they had 
even prepared ovens to cook their bodies in, and 
these were all lying open ready for the victims ; 
and by the sides of the ovens they had laid in 
mounds the green leaves, all prepared to place upon 
the victims before the earth was heaped in to 
cover them up, and the fire-wood and the stones 
were also lying ready to be heated. Then the 
one hundred and forty men went and laid them- 
selves down in the ovens dug out of the earth, as 
though they had been dead bodies, and they turned 
themselves about, and beat themselves upon their 
noses and their faces until they bled, so that 
their bodies became all covered with blood, like 
the corpses of men slain in battle ; and then they 
lay still in the ovens : the weapons they had with 



THE CUKSE OF MANAIA. 



173 



them were short clubs of various kinds, such as 
clubs of jasper and of basalt, and of the bones of 
whales, and the priests whom they had with them 
having found out the sacred place of the people 
of that country, entered it, and hid themselves 
there. 

Thus they continued to lie in the ovens until the 
sun arose next morning, and until the priests of 
their enemies, according to their custom each day 
at dawn, came to spread leaves and other offerings 
to the gods in the sacred place, and there, to their 
surprise, these priests found the warriors of Ngatoro- 
i-rangi all lying heaped up in the ovens. Then the 
priests raised joyful shouts, crying — " At last our 
prayers have been answered by the gods ; here, 
here are the bodies of the host of Ngatoro and of 
Tama', lying heaped up in the cooking places. This 
has been done by our god — he carried them off, 
and brought them here/' The multitude of people 
in the village hearing these cries, ran out to see 
the wonder, and when they saw the bodies of the 
one hundred and forty lying there, with the blood 
in clots dried on them, they began to cry out, — one, 
" 1 11 have this shoulder f another, " And 1 11 have 
this thigh \ and a third, " That head is mine f 
for the blood shed from striking their noses during 
the previous night was now quite clotted on their 
bodies ; and the priests of those who were lying 



174 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



in the ovens having hidden themselves in the 
bushes of the shrubbery round the sacred place, 
could not be seen by the priests of the town of 
Manaia when they entered the sacred place, to 
perform the fitting rites to the gods. 

So these latter cried aloud, as they offered 
thanksgivings to the gods for having granted their 
prayers, and for having fulfilled their wishes; but just 
as their ceremonies were finished, the priests of the 
war party of JNTgatoro-i-rangi rushing (out of their 
hiding places) upon the other priests, slew them, 
so that the priests were first slain, as offerings to the 
gods. Then arose the one hundred and forty men 
from the ovens, and rushed upon their enemies: all 
were slain, not one escaped but Manaia, and he fled 
to the town ; but they at once attacked and carried 
the town by assault, and then the slaughter ceased. 
And the first battle at the sacred place was called Ihu- 
motomotokia, or the battle of " Bruised Noses;" and 
the name of the town which was taken was Whai- 
tiri-ka-papa, but Manaia again escaped from the 
assault on the town. They entered the breaches in 
the town as easily as if they had been walking in 
at the door of a house left open to receive them, 
whence this proverb has been handed down to us — 
" As soon as ever you have defeated your enemy, 
storm their town." The priests now turned over 
the bodies of the first slain, termed the holy fish, 




NEW ZEALAND TRADITION 



THE CURSE OF MANAIA. 



175 



as offerings set apart for the gods, and said suitable 
prayers, and when these ceremonies were ended, 
the conquerors cooked the bodies of their enemies, 
and devoured the whole of them ; but soon after- 
wards the warriors of the other towns of Manaia 
which had not been assaulted, were approaching as 
a forlorn hope to attack their enemies. 

In the meanwhile Ngatoro-i-rangi and his war- 
riors, unaware of this, had retired towards their 
canoe, whilst the host of warriors whom Manaia 
had again assembled were following upon their 
traces. They soon came to a stream which they had 
to pass, and fording that they left it behind them, 
and gained their canoe, but by the time they were 
there, their pursuers had reached the stream they 
had just left. 

Ngatoro-i-rangi now felt thirsty, and remembered 
that they had no water for the crew of the canoe, 
so he said, " There is no water here for us " and 
Eangitu hearing the voice of his commander, an- 
swered cheerfully, " No, there is none here, but 
there is plenty in the stream we have just crossed. 
So they gave the great calabash of the canoe to 
Eangitu, and he returned towards the stream, but 
before he got there the host of Manaia had reached 
it, and had occupied its banks. 

Kangitu, who did not see them, as soon as he 
got to the edge of the stream, dipped his calabash 



176 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



to fill it, and as it did not sink easily, being 
empty and very light, lie stooped down and 
put his hand upon it to press it under the water ; 
and whilst he was holding it with one hand to 
press it down, one of the enemy, stealing on him, 
made a blow at him with his weapon. Rangitu 
saw nothing, but merely heard the whizz of the 
weapon as it was sweeping down through the air 
upon his head, and quick as thought he jerks the 
calabash out of the water, and holds it as a shield 
in the direction in which he heard the blow coming 
down upon him ; the weapon is parried off from one 
side of his head, but the calabash is shattered to 
pieces, and nothing but the mouth of the vessel 
which he was holding is left in his hand. 

Then off he darts, fast as he can fly, and reaches 
before the enemy Ngatoro-i-rangi and his one 
hundred and forty warriors ; as soon as he is thus 
sure of support, in a moment he turns upon his 
foes. Ha, ha ! he slays the first of the enemy, and 
carries off his victim. Then lo ! Tangaroa has risen 
up, he is soon amongst the enemy, he slays and car- 
ries off the second man. Next, Tama-te-kapua kills 
and carries off his man ; thus is it with each war- 
rior ; the enemy then breaks and flies, and a great 
slaughter is made of the host of Manaia, yet he 
himself again escapes with his life. The name 
given to this battle was Tarai-whenua-kura. 



THE CUESE OF MANAIA. 



177 



Having thus avenged themselves of their enemies, 
they again returned to these islands and settled at 
Maketu, and cultivated farms there. Manaia, on 
his part, was not idle, for shortly after they had 
left his place of residence, he, with his tribe, set to 
work at refitting their canoes. 

Ngatoro-i-rangi, in the meantime, occupied the 
island of Motiti, off Tauranga, in the Bay of 
Plenty. There he built a fortified village, which 
he named Matarehua, and a large house orna- 
mented with carved work, which he named Tai- 
maihi-o-Rongo ; and he made a large under- 
ground store for his sweet potatoes, which he named 
Te Marihope ; and he and his old wife generally 
lived nearly alone in their village on Motiti, whilst 
the great body of their people dwelt on the main- 
land at Maketu ; whilst the old couple were in this 
way living on Motiti, suddenly one evening Manaia, 
with a large fleet of canoes and a whole host of 
warriors, appeared off the coast of the island, and 
they pulled straight up to the landing-place, opposite 
to the house of Ngatoro-i-rangi, and lay on their 
paddles there, whilst Manaia hailed him, calling out, 
" Ho ! brother-in-law, come out here if you dare, 
let us fight before the daylight is gone/' Ngatoro- 
i-rangi no sooner heard the voice of Manaia, than 
he came boldly out of the house, although he was 
almost alone, and there he saw the whole host of 

I 3 



178 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Manaia lying on their paddles at the anchorage off 
his landing-place ; but he at once hailed them, shout- 
ing out, " Well done, O brother-in-law, just anchor 
where you are for the night, it is already getting 
dark, and we shall not be able to see to meet the 
edge of one weapon with the other ; the warriors 
could not, therefore, parry one another's blows ; 
to-morrow morning we will fight as much as you 
like/' Manaia no sooner heard this proposal, than 
he assented to it, saying, " You are right, it has 
already grown dark/' And Ngatoro answered him, 
" You had better bring-to your canoes in the an- 
chorage outside there." Manaia therefore told his 
army to anchor their canoes, and to lose no time in 
cooking their food on board ; and the priest 
Ngatoro-i-rangi remained in his fortress. 

All the early part of the night Ngatoro-i- 
rangi remained in the sacred place, performing en- 
chantments and repeating incantations, and his wife 
was with him muttering her incantations ; and 
having finished them, they both returned to their 
house, and there they continued to perform reli- 
gious rites, calling to their aid the storms of 
heaven ; whilst the host of Manaia did nothing 
but amuse themselves, singing Hakas and songs, 
and diverting themselves thoughtlessly as war 
parties do : little did they think that they were 
so soon to perish ; no, they flattered themselves 



THE CUESE OF MANAIA. 



179 



that they would destroy Ngatoro-i-rangi, having 
now caught him almost alone. 

So soon as the depth of night fell upon the 
world, whilst Ngatoro and his aged wife were still 
in the house, and the old woman was sitting at 
the window watching for what might take place, 
she heard the host of Manaia insulting herself and 
her husband, by singing taunting war-songs. Then 
the ancient priest Ngatoro, who was sitting at the 
upper end of the house, rises up, unloosens and 
throws off his garments, and repeats his incanta- 
tions, and calls upon the winds, and upon the 
storms, and upon the thunder and lightning, that 
they may all arise and destroy the host of Manaia ; 
and the god Tawhiri-matea hearkened unto the 
priest, and he permitted the winds to issue forth, 
together with hurricanes, and gales, and storms, and 
thunders and lightnings ; and the priest and his 
wife hearkened anxiously that they might hear the 
first bursting forth of the winds, and thunders and 
lightnings, and of the rain and hail. 

Then, when it was the middle space between the 
commencement of night and the commencement of 
the day, burst forth the winds, and the rain, and 
the lightning, and the thunder, and into the har- 
bour poured all the mountainous waves of the sea, 
and there lay the host of Manaia overcome with 
sleep, and snoring loudly ; but when the ancient 



180 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



priest and his wife heard the rushing of the winds 
and the roaring of the waves, they closed their 
house up securely, and lay composedly down to rest, 
and as they lay they could hear a confused noise, 
and cries of terror, and a wild and tumultuous 
uproar from a mighty host, but before very long, 
all the loud confusion became hushed, and nothing 
was to be heard but the heavy rolling of the surges 
upon the beach ; nor did the storm itself last very 
long — it had soon ceased. 

When the next morning broke, the aged wife of 
Ngatoro went out of her house, and looked to see 
what had become of the host of Manaia, and as 
she cast her eyes along the shore, there she saw 
them lying dead, cast up on the beach. The name 
Ngatoro-i-rangi ^ave to this slaughter was Maiku- 
kutea ; the name given to the storm which slew 
them all was Te Aputahi-a-Pawa. He gave the 
name of Maikukutea to the slaughter, because the 
fish having eaten the bodies of Manaia's warriors, 
only their bones, and the nails of their hands 
and feet, but hardly any part of their corpses, 
could be found. 

Of the vast host of Manaia that perished, not 
one escaped : the body of Manaia himself they re- 
cognised by some tattoo marks upon one of his 
arms. Ngatoro now lighted a signal fire as a 
sign to his relations and warriors at Maketu that 



THE CURSE OF MANAIA. 



181 



he wanted them to cross over to the island ; and 
when his chosen band of one hundred and forty 
warriors saw the signal, they launched their canoe 
and pulled across to join their chief, and on reach- 
ing the island, they found that the host of Manaia 
had all perished. 

Thus was avenged the curse of Mutahanga and 
of Manaia ; however, it would have been far better 
if the canoe Arawa had not been burnt by Raumati, 
then Ngatoro and his warriors would have had two 
canoes to return in to Hawaiki, to revenge their 
wrongs, and the whole race of Manaia would have 
been utterly destroyed. 

It would also have been far better if Ngatoro 
and his people had remained at Maketu, and had 
never gone to Moehau ; then the Arawa would not 
have been burnt ; for from the burning of that 
canoe by Raumati sprang the war, the events of 
which have now been recounted. 



THE LEGEND OF HATUPATU AND HIS 
BROTHERS. 



When Tama-te-Kapua went with his followers to 
Moe-hau, the hill near Cape Colville, and Ihenga 
and his followers went to Roto-rua, then Ha-nui, 
Ha-roa, and Hatupatu went also to Whakamaru, 
to Maroa, to Tuata, to Tutuka, to Tuaropaki, to 
Hauhungaroa, to Hurakia, and to Horohoro, the 
districts which lie between Lakes Taupo and Roto- 
rua, and between Roto-rua and the head of the 
Waikato River, to snare birds for themselves, and 
followed their sport for many a day, until they had 
hunted for several months ; but their little brother 
Hatupatu was all this time thinking to himself 
that they never gave him any of the rare dainties 
or nice things that they got, so that they might 
all feast together, but at each meal he received 
nothing but the lean tough birds; so when the 
poor little fellow went and sat down by the side 
of the fire to his food, he every day used to 
keep on crying and eating, crying and eating, 
during his meals. At last, saucy, mischievous 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 183 

thoughts rose up in his young heart. So one day, 
whilst his brothers were out snaring birds, and 
he, on this as on every other day, was left at their 
resting-place to take care of the things, the little 
rogue crept into the storehouse, where the birds, 
preserved in their own fat, were kept in cala- 
bashes, and he stole some, and set resolutely to 
work to eat them, with some tender fern-root, 
nicely beaten and dressed, for a relish ; so that to 
look at him you could not help thinking of the 
proverb, " Bravo, that throat of yours can swallow 
anything." 

He finished all the calabashes of preserved 
birds, and then attacked those that were kept 
in casks, and when he had quite filled himself 
he crept out of the storehouse again, and there he 
went trampling over the pathway that led to their 
resting-place, running about this side, and that 
side, and all round it, that his brothers might be 
induced to think a war party had come, and 
had eaten up the food in their absence. Then he 
came back, and ran a spear into himself in two 
or three places, where he could not do himself 
much harm, and gave himself a good bruise or two 
upon his head, and laid down on the ground near 
their hut. 

When his brothers came back they found him 



184 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



lying there in appearance very badly wounded ; 
they next ran to the storehouse, and found their 
preserved birds all gone : so they asked him who 
had done all this, and he replied, " A war party/' 
Then they went to the pathways and saw the foot- 
marks, and said, "It is too true." They melted 
some fat, and poured warm oil on his wounds, and 
he revived ; and they all ate as they used to do in 
former days, the brothers enjoying all the good 
things, whilst Hatupatu kept eating and crying, 
and he went and sat on the smoky side of the fire, 
so that his cruel brothers might laugh at him, saying, 
" Oh, never mind him ; those are not real tears, 
they are only his eyes watering from the smoke." 

Next day Hatupatu stopped at home, and off 
went his brothers to snare birds, and he began to 
steal the preserved birds again, and thus he did 
every day, every day, and of course at last his 
brothers suspected him, and one day they laid in 
Wait for him, when he not foreseeing this, again 
crouched into the storehouse and began eating. 
" Ha, ha, ha, we Ve caught you now then ; your 
thievish tricks are found out, are they, you little 
rogue?" His brothers killed him at once, and 
buried him in the large heap of feathers they 
had pulled out from the snared birds; after 
this they went back to Roto-rua, and when they 



HATTJPATU AND HIS BROTHEKS. 185 

arrived, their parents asked them, " Where is 
Hatupatu ? What's become of your little brother?" 
And they answered, " We don't know ; we have 
not seen him." And their parents said, " You've 
killed him." And they replied, "We have not;" 
and they disputed and disputed together, and at 
last their parents said, " It is too true that you 
must have killed him, for he went away with you, 
and he is missing now when you return to us." 

At length Hatupatu's father and mother thought 
they would send a spirit to search for him ; so they 
sent one, and the spirit went. Its form was that 
of a flag, and its name was Tamumu-ki-te-rangi, or 
He-that-buzzes-in-the-skies, and it departed and 
arrived at the place where Hatupatu was buried, 
and found him and performed enchantments, and 
Hatupatu came to life again, and went upon his 
way, and met a woman who was spearing birds for 
herself, and her spear was nothing but her own 
lips: and Hatupatu had a real wooden spear. The 
woman speared at a bird with her lips, but 
Hatupatu had at the same moment thrown his 
spear at the same bird, and it stuck into her 
lips: and when he saw this he ran off with all his 
speed, but he was soon caught by the woman, 
not being able to go so fast as she could, for her 
feet bore her along, and wings were upon her 



186 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

arms, like those of a bird, and she brought him to 
her house, and they slept there. 

Hatupatu found that this woman never ate any- 
thing but raw food, and she gave the birds to 
Hatupatu to eat without their being in any way 
dressed, but he only pretended to eat them, lifting 
them up to his mouth, and letting them fall slily. 
At dawn the woman prepared to go and spear birds, 
but Hatupatu always remained at home, and when 
she had departed, he began to cook food for him- 
self, and to look at all the things in the cave of 
rocks that the woman lived in — at her two-handed 
wooden sword — at her beautiful cloak made of red 
feathers torn from under the wing of the Kaka — at 
her red cloak of thick dog's fur — at her ornamented 
cloak woven from flax ; and he kept thinking how 
he could run off with them all : and then he looked 
at the various tame lizards she had, and at her 
tame little birds, and at all her many curiosities, 
and thus he went on day after day, until at last 
one day he said to her, "Now, you'd better 
go a long distance to-day ; to the first moun- 
tain range, to the second range, the tenth range, the 
hundredth range, the thousandth mountain range, 
and when you get there, then begin to catch birds 
for us two." To this she consented, and went. 
He remained behind roasting birds for himself, and 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 187 

thinking, " I wonder how far she 's got now ; " and 
when he thought she had reached the place he had 
spoken of, then he began to gather up her cloak of 
red feathers, and her cloak of dogs' skins, and her 
cloak of ornamented flax, and her carved two- 
handed sword ; and the young fellow said, " How 
well I shall look when all the fine feathers on these 
cloaks are rustled by the wind." And he brandished 
the two-handed sword, and made cuts at the lizards, 
and at all the tame animals, and they were soon 
killed. Then he struck at the perch on which 
the little pet birds sat, and he killed them all but 
one, which escaped, and it flew away to fetch 
back the woman they all belonged to. Her name 
was Kurangaituku. And as the little bird flew 
along, these are the words he kept singing, " Oh, 
Kurangaituku, our home is ruined, our things are 
all destroyed and so it kept singing until it had 
flown a very long way. At last Kurangaituku 
heard it, and said, " By whom is all this done V 
And the little bird answered, " By Hatupatu — 
everything is gone." Then Kurangaituku made 
haste to get home again, and as she went 
along she kept calling out, " Step out, stretch 
along ; step out, stretch along. There you are, 
Hatupatu, not far from me. There you are, 
Hatupatu, not far from me. Step out, stretch 



188 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



along ; step out, stretch along. There you are, 
Hatupatu, not far from me now/' 

She only made three strides, before she had 
reached her cave, and when she looked about, 
she could see nothing in it ; but the little 
bird still guided her on, as she kept saying, " Step 
out, stretch along ; step out, stretch along ; I '11 
catch you there now, Hatupatu ; 1 11 catch you 
there now, Hatupatu f and she almost caught Ha- 
tupatu ; and he thought, I 'in done for now. So 
he repeated his charm : " rock, open for me, 
open." Then the rock oj)ened, and he hid himself 
in it, and the woman looked and could not find 
him ; and she went on to a distance, and kept call- 
ing out, " 1 11 catch you there, Hatupatu ; I '11 catch 
you there, Hatupatu and when her voice had 
died away at a great distance, Hatupatu came up 
out of the rock and made off ; and thus they went 
on, and thus they went on, the whole way, until 
they came to Roto-rua ; and when they arrived at 
the sulphur-springs (called Te Whaka-rewa-rewa), 
Hatupatu jumped over these ; but Kurangaituku 
thinking they were cold, tried to wade through, but 
sunk through the crust, and was burnt to death. 

Hatupatu proceeded on and sat on the shore of 
the lake, and when the evening came, he dived 
into the water, and rose up at the island of 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 189 

Mokoia, and sat in the warm-bath there ; just 
at this time his father and mother wanted 
some water to drink, and sent their slave to 
fetch some for them, and he came to the place 
where he found Hatupatu lying in the warm- 
bath ; Hatupatu laid hold of him, and asked 
him, " Whom are you fetching that water for 
at this time of night V and he answered, " For 
so and so/' Then Hatupatu asked him, "Where 
is the house of Ha-nui and of Ha-roa V and the 
slave answered, " They live in a house by them- 
selves ; but what can your name be V and he 
answered him, " I am Hatupatu." So the old 
slave said, " Hatupatu, are you still alive V- 
and he replied, " Yes, indeed/' And the old 
slave said to him, " Oh, 1 11 tell you ; I and your 
father and mother live together in a house by 
ourselves ; and they sent me down here to fetch 
water for them *" and Hatupatu said, " Let us go 
to them together and they went : and on coming 
to them, the old people began to weep with a loud 
voice ; and Hatupatu said, " Nay, nay ; let us cry 
with a gentle voice, lest my brethren who slew me 
should hear ; and I, moreover, will not sleep here 
with you, my parents, it is better for me to go 
and remain in the cave you have dug to keep your 
sweet potatoes in, that I may overhear each day 



190 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



what they say, and I '11 take all my meals there/' 
So he went, and he said, " Let my father sleep with 
me in the cave in the night, and in the daytime 
let him stop in the house \ and his father consented, 
and thus they did every day and every night, and 
his brothers noticed that there was a change in their 
food, that they did not get so much or such good 
food as whilst their brother had been away (for 
his mother kept the best of everything for him) ; 
they had worse food now ; so they beat their 
mother and their slaves, and this they did con- 
tinually. 

At last, they heard the people all calling out, 
" Oh, oh, Hatupatu's here and one of them 
said, " Oh, no, that can't be ; why, Hatupatu is 
dead ;" but when they saw it was really him, one 
of them caught hold of his two-handed wooden 
sword, and so did the others ; and Hatupatu 
also caught hold of his two-handed wooden sword ; 
he had decorated his head in the night, and had 
stuck it fall of the beautiful feathers befitting a 
chief ; and he had placed a bunch of the soft white 
down from the stomach of the albatross in each 
ear ; and when his brothers and the multitude of 
their followers dared him to come forth from the 
storehouse and fight them, he caught hold of his 
girdle, and of his apron of red feathers, and girding 




NEW ZEALAND CHIEF. 



HATUPATU AND HIS BEOTHEES. 191 

on his apron, he repeated an incantation suited 
for the occasion. When this was finished his head 
appeared rising up out of the storehouse, and he 
repeated another incantation, and afterwards a third 
over his sword. 

Hatupatu now came out of the storehouse, and 
as his brothers gazed on him, they saw his 
looks were most noble ; glared forth on them 
the eyes of the young man, and glittered forth 
the mother-of-pearl eyes of the carved face on the 
handle of his sword, and when the many thousands 
of their tribe who had gathered round saw the 
youth, they too were quite astonished at his noble- 
ness ; they had no strength left, they could do 
nothing but admire him : he was only a little boy 
when they had seen him before, and now, when 
they met him again, he was like a noble chief, and 
they now looked upon his brothers with very differ- 
ent eyes from those with which they looked at him. 

His three brothers sprang at him ; three wooden 
swords were at the same time levelled at Hatupatu 
to slay him ; he held the blade of his sword 
pointed to the ground, till the swords of his bro- 
thers almost touched him, when he rapidly warded 
off the blows, and whirling round his wooden sword, 
two of the three were felled by the blade of it, 
and one by a blow from the handle ; then they sprang 
up, and rushed at him once more ; over they go 



192 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



again, two felled by the blade of bis sword, and 
one by the handle ; it was enough — they gave in. 
Then their father said to them, " Oh ! my sons, I 
would that you were as strong in peace as you 
are in attacking one another ; in seeking revenge 
for your ancestral canoe, Te Arawa, which was 
consumed in a fire by the chief Raumati. Long 
have you been seeking to revenge yourselves upon 
him, but you have not succeeded, you have gained 
no advantage ; perhaps you are only strong and 
bold when you attack your young brother, my 
last-born child/' 

When his sons Ha-nui, Ha-roa, and Karika 
heard these words of their father, they and their 
many followers felt their hearts grow sad ; they 
began to prepare for a war party, by beating 
flat pieces of prepared fern-root ; and they cooked 
sweet potatoes in ovens, and mashed them, and 
packed them up in baskets of flax, and again 
put them in the ovens, that the food might 
keep for a long time ; and they cooked shell-fish 
in baskets, and thus collected food for an expe- 
dition to Maketu. Whilst his brothers were 
making all these preparations for the expedition, 
their father was secretly teaching Hatupatu the 
tattoo marks and appearance of Raumati, so that 
he might easily recognise that chief ; and when 
the canoes started with the warriors, he did not 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 193 

embark with them, but remained behind ; the 
canoes had reached the middle of the lake, when 
Hatupatu rose up, and taking thirty cloaks of 
red feathers with him, went off to the war ; he 
proceeded by diving under the water — that was 
the path he chose; and when he reached the 
deepest part of the lake, he stopped to eat a 
meal of mussels in the water, and then rose up 
from the bottom and came out. He had got as 
far as Ngaukawakawa, when his brothers and 
the warriors in the canoes arrived there, and 
found him spreading out the cloaks he had 
brought with him to dry; and as soon as their 
canoes reached the shore they asked him, "Where is 
your canoe, that you managed to get here so fast?" 
and he answered, "Never mind, I have a canoe of 
my own." 

Hatupatu threw off here the wreath of leaves 
he wore round his brow, and it took root, and 
became a pohutukawa-tree, which bears such beau- 
tiful red flowers. His brothers' canoes had by 
this time got out into Roto-iti ; then he again 
dived after them, and rose to the surface, and 
came out of the water at Kuha-rua, where he 
threw off his wreath of totara-leaves, and it took 
root and grew, and it is still growing there at 
this day ; when Ins brothers and the warriors 
arrived at Kuha-rua, they found him sitting there, 

K 

i 



194 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and they were astonished at his doings ; .they 
landed at Otaramarae, and marching overland, 
encamped for the night at Kaharoa-a-Tauhu, and 
the next day they reached Maketn ; and when 
the evening came they ranged their warriors in 
divisions ; three hundred and forty warriors were 
told off for each of the divisions, under the com- 
mand of each of Hatupatu's three brothers; but 
no division was placed under his command. 

Hatupatu knew that the jealousy of his bro- 
thers, on account of their former quarrels, was 
the reason they had not told off any men for 
him ; so he said, " Oh, my brothers, I did not 
refuse to hearken to you, when you asked me to 
come with you ; but I came, as you requested, just 
as I went readily with you upon that occasion 
when you killed me, and here I am now left in a 
very bad position ; so I pray you, let some of the 
warriors be placed under my command, let there 
be fifty of them/' But they said to him, " Pooh, 
pooh ; come now, you be off home again. What can 
you do ? The only thing you are fit to destroy is 
food/' He, the young man, said no more ; but at 
once left his brothers, and on the same night he 
sought out a rough thicket as his resting-place ; and 
when he saw how convenient for his purpose was the 
place he had selected, he turned to and began to tie 
together in bundles the roots of the creeping plants, 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 195 

and of the bushes, and dressed them up with the 
cloaks he had with him ; and when he had finished, 
the war band of these figures, which the young man 
had made, looked just like a band of real warriors. 
The day had hardly dawned, when the inhabitants 
of the place they had come to attack saw their 
enemies, and sent off messengers to tell the war- 
riors, on this side and that side, that they should 
come and fight with them against the common 
enemy. 

In the meantime, all the warriors of the columns 
of Hatupatu's brothers were exhorting their men, 
and encouraging them by warlike speeches ; first 
one chief stood up to speak, and then another, and 
when they had all ended, Hatupatu himself got up, 
to encourage his mock party. He had been sitting 
down, and as he gracefully arose, it was beautiful to 
see his plumes and ornaments of feathers fluttering 
in the breeze ; the long hair of the young man was 
tied up in four knots, or clubs, in each of which was 
stuck a bunch of feathers ; you would have thought 
he had just come from the gannet island of Karewa, 
(in the Bay of Plenty ,) where birds' feathers abound ; 
and when he had done speaking to one party of his 
column, he unloosened his hair, leaving but one 
clump of it over the centre of his forehead, and 
now he wore a cloak of red feathers ; then he made 

K 2 



196 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



another speech, encouraging his men to be brave 
then after sitting down again, he ran to the rear, 
and took all the feathers and knots from his hair, 
and he this time wore a cloak of flax with a broi- 
dered border ; again he addressed his men, and thi 
being finished, he was seen again in the centre of 
the body, standing up to speak, naked, and stripped 
for the fight. Once more he appeared at the head 
of the column ; this time he had the hair at the 
back of his head tied up in a knot and ornamented 
with feathers, he wore a cloak made of the skins of 
dogs, and the long wooden war-axe was the weapon 
he had in his hands. Having concluded this 
speech, he appeared again in a different place, with 
his hair tied in five bunches, each ornamented 
with feathers, whilst a large rough dog-skin 
formed his cloak ; and the weapon in his hand 
was a mere* made of white whalebone : thus he 
ended his speeches to his party. When the people 
of the place they had come to attack saw how 
numerous were the chiefs in the column of Hatu- 
patu, and what clothes and weapons they had, they 
dreaded his division much more than those of his 
brothers. 

His brothers' divisions had many warriors in 
them, although the number of chiefs was only equal 

* A sharp instrument of war made of stone. 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTH EES. 197 

in number to the divisions : thus there were three 
divisions, and also three chiefs ; whilst, although 
Hatupatu had only one division, it appeared to 
be commanded by a multitude of chiefs, who had 
superb dresses ; thence the enemy burnt with fear 
of that division, which they accounted to be com- 
posed of men ; but no ; it was only formed of 
clumps of grass dressed up. 

Now the people of the place they were attacking 
drew out to the battle, and as they pressed nearer 
and nearer, they pushed forth long heavy spears, 
and sent forth volleys of light spears made of the 
branches of manuka-trees, at the column of Ha-nui. 
Alas ! it is broken ; they retreat, they fly, they fall 
back on the division of Ha-roa ; they are here 
rallied, and ordered to charge ; but they do not — 
they only poke forward their heads, as if intend- 
ing to go ; the enemy has reached them, and 
is on them again ; they are again broken and dis- 
ordered ; they run in now upon the third line, 
that of Karika ; they are rallied, and again order- 
ed to charge; but they only press forward the upper 
part of their bodies, as if intending to advance, when 
the enemy is already upon them in full charge. It 
is over ; all the divisions of Hatupatu's brothers 
are broken and flying in confusion ; what did it 
matter whether they were many or few, they were 



198 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



all cowards. Their enemies saw no brave men's 
faces, only the black backs of heads running away. 

All this time the division of Hatupatu appears 
to be sitting quietly upon the ground, and when 
the men in full retreat came running in upon it, 
Hatupatu rose up to order them to charge 
again. He cried out : " Turn on them again, turn 
on them again for a long time the enemy and 
Hatupatu were hidden from each other's view ; at 
last they saw him. Then rushes forward Hatu- 
patu from one party, and a chief of the enemy, 
named also Karika (like his brother), from the 
other, and the latter aims a fierce blow at Hatu- 
patu with a short spear ; he parries it, and strikes 
down Karika with his two-handed sword, who dies 
without a struggle ; motionless, as food hidden 
in a bag, he draws forth his whalebone mere, 
cuts off Karika's head, and grasps it by the 
hair. It is enough — the enemy break, — fall back, 
— fly ; then his brothers and their warriors turn 
again on the foes, and slay them ; many thou- 
sands of them fall. Whilst his brothers are thus 
slaying the enemy, he is eagerly seeking for 
Baumati ; he is found ; Hatupatu catches him, his 
head is cut off ; it is concealed. The slaughter 
being ended, they return to their encampment ; 
they cook the bodies of their enemies ; they devour 



WEEPING OVER HEAD OF DECEASED RELATIVE. 



HATUPATU AND HIS BEOTHEES. 199 



them ; they smoke and carefully preserve their 
heads : and when all is done, each makes speeches 
boasting of his deeds ; and one after the other, 
vaunting to have slain the great chief Raumati. 
But Hatupatu said not a word of his having Rau~ 
mati's head. 

They return to Roto-rua ; this time he goes in 
the canoe with them ; they draw near to the island 
of Mokoia, and his brothers, as they are in the 
canoe, chant songs of triumph to the gods of 
war ; they cease ; their father inquires from the 
shore, " Which of you has the head of Raumati?" 
and one, holding up the head he had taken, said, 
"I have;" and another said, "I have;" at last, 
their father calls out, " Alas, alas ! Raumati has 
escaped." 

Then Hatupatu stands up in the canoe, and 
chants a prayer to the god of war over a basket 
heaped up with heads, whilst holding up in his 
hand the head of Karika. 

Then his hand grasps the head of Raumati, which 
he had kept hid under his cloak, and he cries — 
" There, there ; I have the head of Raumati." All 
rejoice. Their father strips off his cloak, rushes 
into the lake, and repeats a thanksgiving to 
the gods. 

When he had ended this, he promoted in honour 



200 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

his last-born child, and debased in rank his eldest 
sons. 

Thus at last was revenge obtained for the burn- 
ing: of the Arawa, and the descendants of Tama-te- 
kapua emigrated, and came and dwelt in Pakotore, 
and Rangitihi was born there, and his children, 
and one of them came to Rangiwhakakapua, or 
Roto-rua, and dwelt there ; and afterwards one of 
his daughters went to the Whakatohea tribe, at 
Apotiki. After that Rangitihi and all his sons went 
to Ahuriri, to revenge the death of the husband of 
Rongo-maipapa, and she was given up to them as 
a reward ; then grew up to manhood TJenukuko- 
pako, and began to visit all the people subject to 
him at Whakamaru, at Maroa, at Tutukau, at 
Tuata, and he went and afterwards returned to 
Pakotore, and whilst going backwards and for- 
wards, he lost his dog, named Potakatawhiti, 
at Mokoia ; it was killed by Mataaho and Ka- 
waarero. 

He came back from "Whakamaru to look for it, 
and when he found it had been killed, a great 
war was commenced against Roto-rua, and some were 
slain of each party. After this, Rangi-te-aorere, 
the son of Rangi-whakaekeau, grew up to man's 
estate ; in his time they stormed and took the 
island of Mokoia, and Roto-rua was conquered by 



HATUPATU AND HIS BROTHERS. 201 

the sons of Rangitihi, who kept it still and still, 
until the multitude of men there increased very 
greatly, and spread themselves in all parts ; and 
the descendants of Ngatoro-i-rangi also multiplied 
there, and some of them still remain at Roto- 
rua. Tumakoha begat Tarawhai, and Te Rangi- 
takaroro was one of his sons ; his second son was 
Tarewa, and his third was Taporahitaua. 



K 3 



LEGEND OF THE EMIGRATION OF TURI, 



(the progenitor of the whanganui tribes.) 

The following narrative shows the cause which led 
Turi, the ancestor of the Whanganui tribes, to 
emigrate to New Zealand, and the manner in which 
he reached these islands. 

Hoimatua, a near relation of Turi, had a little 
boy named Potikiroroa ; this young fellow was 
sent one day with a message to Uenuku, who was 
an ariki, or chief high-priest, to let him know 
that a burnt-offering had been made to the gods, 
of which Uenuku, as ariki, was to eat part, and 
the little fellow accidentally tripped and fell down 
in the very doorway of Wharekura, the house of 
Uenuku, and this being a most unlucky omen, 
Uenuku was dreadfully irritated, and he laid 
hold of the little fellow, and ate him up, without 
even having the body cooked, and so the poor boy 
perished. 

Turi was determined to have revenge for this 
barbarous act, and to slay some person as a pay- 
ment for little Potikiroroa, and, after casting about 



THE EMIGRATION OF TURI. 



203 



in his thoughts for some time as to the most effec- 
tual mode of doing this, he saw that his best way 
of revenging himself would be to seize Hawepotiki, 
the little son of Uenuku, and kill him. 

One day Turi, in order to entice the boy to 
his house, ordered the children of all the people 
who dwelt there with him to begin playing toge- 
ther, in a place where Hawepotiki could see them ; 
so they began whipping their tops, and whirling 
their whizgigs, but it was of no use ; the little 
fellow could not be tempted to come and play with 
them, and that plan failed. 

At last summer came with its heats, scorching 
men's skins; and Turi, one very hot day, ordered 
all the little children to run and bathe in the river 
Waimatuhirangi ; so they all ran to the river and 
began sporting and playing in the water. When 
little Hawepotiki saw all the other lads swim- 
ming and playing in the river, he was thrown off 
his guard and ran there too, and Turi waylaid him, 
and killed him in a moment, and thus revenged 
the death of Potikiroroa. 

After killing the poor boy, Turi cut the 
heart out of his body, which was eaten by him- 
self and his friends; but when, shortly afterwards, 
a chieftain ness, named Hotukura, sent up a pre- 
sent of baskets of food to their sacred prince, to 
Uenuku, carried in the usual way by a long 



204 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



procession of people, some of Turi's friends 
pushed into the basket of baked sweet potatoes 
prepared for Uenuku the heart of Te Hawepotiki, 
cut up and baked too, and so it was carried up to 
Uenuku in the basket, and laid before him, that 
he might eat it. 

Uenuku, who had missed his little boy, being still 
unable to ascertain what had become of him, could 
not help sighing when he saw such an excellent 
feast, and said, "Poor little Hawepotiki, how he 
would have liked this, but he now no longer comes 
running to sit by my side at mealtime and then 
he himself ate the food that was laid before him. 
He had hardly, however, ended his meal, when 
one of his friends, who had found what had been 
done, came and told him, saying, "They have 
made you eat a part of Hawepotiki." And he 
answered, " Very well, let it be ; he lies in the 
belly of Toi-te-huatahi meaning by this proverb, 
that he would have a fearful revenge ; but he 
showed no other signs of feeling, that he might not 
gratify his enemies by manifesting his sorrow, or 
alarm them by loud threats of revenge. 

At this time Turi was living in a house, the name 
of which was Rangiatea, and there were born two 
of his children, Turangaimua and Taneroroa. One 
evening, shortly after the death of Te Hawepotiki, 
Rongo-rongo, Turi's wife, went out of the house to 



THE EMIGRATION OF TURI. 205 



suckle her little girl, Taneroroa, and she heard 
Uenuku in his house, named Wharekura, chanting 
a poem, of which this was the burden: — 

" Oh ! let the tribes be summoned from the south, 
Oh ! let the tribes be summoned from the north ; 
Let Ngati-Ruanui come in force ; 
Let Ngati-Rongotea's warriors too be there, 
That we may all our foes destroy, 
And sweep them utterly away. 
Oh, they ate one far nobler than themselves." 

When Rongo-rongo heard what Uenuku was 
chanting, she went back to her house, and said 
to her husband, "Turi, I have just heard them 
chanting this poem in Wharekura." And Turi 
answered, " What poem do you say it was V Then 
she hummed it gently over to her husband, and 
Turi at once divined the meaning of it,* and said 
to his wife, " That poem is meant for me and he 

* The discovery of a plot by guessing the meaning of a song 
which persons were overheard singing was a common circumstance 
with all the races and throughout all the islands of the Pacific ; 
for instance, in Pitcairn's Island, when first occupied by part of the 
crew of the " Bounty " and some Tahitian men and women, we find : 

" Brown and Christian were very intimate, and their two wives 
overheard one night Williams's second wife sing a song, ' Why 
should the Tahitian men sharpen their axes to cut off the English- 
men's heads V The wives of Brown and Christian told their husbands 
what Williams's second wife had been singing; when Christian heard 
of it, he went by himself with his gun to the house where all the 
Tahitian men were assembled ; he pointed his gun at them, but it 
missed fire. Two of the natives ran away into the bush." — Pitcairn's 
Island and the Islanders. 



206 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



knew this well, because, as he had killed the child 
of Uenuku, he guessed that they meant to slay him 
as a payment for the boy, and that the lament 
his wife had heard evinced that they were secretly 
laying their plans of revenge. 

He, therefore, at once started off to his father- 
in-law, Toto, to get a canoe from him, in which he 
might escape from his enemies ; and Toto gave 
him one, the name of which was Aotea; the tree 
from which it had been made grew upon the 
banks of the Lake Waiharakeke. Toto had 
first hewn down the tree, and then split it, 
breaking it lengthways into two parts; out of 
one part of the tree he made a canoe, which 
he named Matahorua, and out of the other part 
he made a canoe which he named Aotea. He 
gave the canoe which he had named Mata- 
horua to Kuramarotini ; and the canoe which he 
had named Aotea he made a present of to Rongo- 
rongo ; thus giving a canoe to each of his two 
daughters. Matahorua was the canoe in which a 
large part of the world was explored, and Reti was 
the name of the man who navigated it. 

One day Kupe and Hoturapa went out upon the 
sea to fish together, and when they had anchored 
the canoe at a convenient place, Kupe let down 
his line into the sea ; and he said to his cousin, 
Hoturapa, " Hotu ; my line is foul of something ; 



THE EMIGRATION OF TUEI. 207 

do you, like a good young fellow, dive down and 
release it for me ; " but Hoturapa said, " Just give 
me your line, and let me see if I cannot pull it 
up for you." But Kivpe answered, " It 's of no 
use, you cannot do it ; you had better give a 
plunge in at once, and pull it up." This was a 
mere stratagem upon the part of Kupe, that he 
might obtain possession of Kuramarotini, who was 
Hoturapa's wife ; however, Hoturapa not suspect- 
ing this, good-naturedly dived down at once to 
bring up Kupe's line ; and as soon as he had 
made his plunge, Kupe at once cut the rope 
which was attached to the anchor, and paddled 
off for the shore as fast he could go, to carry off 
Hoturapa's wife, Kuramarotini. When Hoturapa 
came up to the surface of the water, the canoe was 
already a long distance from him, and he cried out 
to Kupe, " Oh, Kupe, bring the canoe back here to 
take me in." But Kupe would not listen to him, 
he brought not back the canoe, and so Hoturapa 
perished. Kupe then made haste, and carried off 
Kuramarotini, and to escape from the vengeance of 
the relations of Hoturapa, he fled away with her, 
on the ocean, in her canoe Matahorua, and dis- 
covered the islands of New Zealand, and coasted 
entirely round them, without finding any inhabi- 
tants. 

/ As Kupe was proceeding down the east coast of 



208 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

New Zealand, and had reached Castle Point, a 
great cuttle-fish, alarmed at the sight of a canoe 
with men in it, fled away from a large cavern 
which exists in the south headland of the cove 
there ; it fled before Kupe, in the direction of Rau- 
kawa, or Cook's Straits ; when Kupe arrived at 
those straits, he crossed them in his canoe, to 
examine the middle islands ; seeing the entrance of 
Awa-iti, (now called Tory Channel,) running deep 
up into the land, he turned his canoe in there 
to explore it ; he found a very strong current 
coming out from between the lands, and named 
the entrance Kura-te-au ; strong as the current 
was, Kupe stemmed it in his canoe, and ascended 
it, until he was just surmounting the crown 
of the rapid. The great cuttle-fish or dragon, 
that had fled from Castle Point, which Kupe 
named Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, or the cuttle-fish 
of Muturangi, had fled to Tory Channel, and 
was lying hid in this part of the current. The 
monster heard the canoe of Kupe approaching as 
they were pulling up the current, and raised its 
arms above the waters to catch and devour the 
canoe, men and all. As it thus floated upon the 
water, Kupe saw it, and pondered how he might 
destroy the terrible monster. At last he thought of 
a plan for doing this; he had already found that, 
although he kept on chopping off portions of its 



THE EMIGEATION" OF TUKI. 209 



gigantic arms, furnished with suckers, as it tried 
to fold them about the canoe, in order to pull it 
down, the monster was too fierce to care for this ; 
so Kupe seized an immense hollow calabash he 
had on board to carry his water in, and threw it 
overboard ; hardly had it touched the water ere 
the monster flew at it, thinking that it was the 
canoe of Kupe, and that he would destroy it ; so 
it reared its whole body out of the water, to press 
down the huge calabash under it, and Kupe, as he 
stood in his canoe, being in a most excellent posi- 
tion to cut it with his axe, seized the oppor- 
tunity, and, striking it a tremendous blow, he 
severed it in two, and killed it.* 

The labours of Kupe consisted in this, that he 
discovered these islands, and examined the different 
openings which he found running up into the coun- 
try. He only found two inhabitants in the coun- 
try, a bird which he named the Kokako, and an- 
other bird which he named the Tiwaiwaka ; he, 
however, did not ultimately remain in these islands, 
but returned to his own house, leaving the open- 
ings he had examined in the country as signs that 
he had been here. 

* They show several spots upon the east coast where Kupe 
touched with his canoes ; but I have not yet had time to arrange 
and transcribe the various traditions connected with his landing at 
those places. — Gr. G-. 



210 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Thus he left his marks here, but he himself re- 
turned to his own country, where he found Turi 
and all his people still dwelling ; although it was 
now the fourth year from that one in which he 
had slain little Hawepotiki; but Turi was then on 
the point of flying to escape from the vengeance of 
Uenuku, and as he heard of the discoveries Kupe 
had made, he determined to come to these islands. 
So he had his canoe, the Aotea, dragged down to 
the shore in the night, and Kupe, who happened to 
be near the place, and heard the bottom of the canoe 
grating upon the beach as they hauled it along, 
went to see what was going on ; and when he 
found what Turi was about to do, he said to 
him, " Now, mind, Turi, keep ever steering to the 
eastward, where the sun rises ; keep the bow of 
your canoe ever steadily directed towards that 
point of the sky/' Turi answered him, " You had 
better accompany me, Kupe. Come, let us go to- 
gether." And when Kupe heard this, he said to 
Turi, " Do you think that Kupe will ever return 
there again V and he then continued, " When you 
arrive at the islands, you had better go at once and 
examine the river that I discovered [said to be the 
Patca] ; its mouth opens direct to the westward ; 
you will find but two inhabitants there [meaning 
the Kokako and Tiwaiwaka] ; one of them carries 
its tail erect and sticking out ; now do not mis- 



THE EMIGEATION OF TUEI. 211 



take the voice of one of them for that of a man, for 
it calls out just like one ; and if you stand on one 
side of the river, and call out to them, you will 
hear their cries answering you from the other. 
That will be the very spot that I mentioned to 
you/' * 

Turi's brother-in-law, Tuau, now called out to 
him, " Why, Turi, the paddles you are taking with 
you are good for nothing, for they are made from the 
huhoe-tree Turi replied, " Wherever can I get 
other paddles now?" and Tuau answered, "Just 
wait a little, until I run for the paddles of Taipa- 
rae-roa ; " and he brought back, and put on board 
the canoe, two paddles, the names of which were 
Rangihorona and Kautu-ki-te-rangi, and two 
bailers, the names of which were Tipuahoronuku 
and Rangi-ka-wheriko. Then Turi said, "Tuau, 
come out a little way to sea with me, and 
then return again, when you have seen me fairly 
started upon my long voyage/' To this Tuau 
cheerfully consented, and got into the canoe, 
which was already afloat ; then were carried on 
board all the articles which the voyagers were to 
take ; and their friends put on board for them 

* It will be seen that they did not follow Kupe's directions, think- 
ing that he was deceiving them, he being probably friendly to 
Uenuku. 



212 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



seed, sweet potatoes, of the species called Te Kakau, 
and dried stones of the berries of the Karaka-tree ; 
and some live edible rats in boxes, and some tame 
green parrots ; and added some pet Pukekos, or 
large water-hens ; and many other valuable things 
were put on board the canoe, whence the proverb, 
" The Aotea's valuable freight." 

At last away floated the canoe, whilst it was 
yet night, and Tuau sat at the stern, gently pad- 
dling as they dropped out from the harbour ; but 
when they got to its mouth, Turi called out to his 
brother-in-law, "Tuau, you come and sit for a 
little at the house amidships, on the floor of the 
double canoe, and let me take the paddle and pull 
till I warm myself." So Tuau came amidships, 
and sat down with the people there, whilst Turi 
went astern and took his paddle. Then Turi and 
his people pulled as hard as they could, and were 
soon far outside the harbour, in the wide sea. 
Tuau, who had intended to land at the heads, at last 
turned to see what distance they had got. Alas ! 
alas ! they were far out at sea ; then he called 
out to Turi, " Oh, Turi, Turi, pray turn back the 
canoe and land me." But not the least attention 
did Turi pay to him ; he persisted in carrying off 
his brother-in-law with him, although there was 
Tuau weeping and grieving when he thought of his 



THE EMIGKATION OF TUKI. 218 



children and wife, and lamenting as he exclaimed, 
" How shall I ever get back to my dear wife and 
children from the place where you are going to ! " 
But what does Turi care for that ; he still thinks 
fit to carry him off with him, and Tuau cannot now 
help himself. They were now so far out at sea that 
he could not gain the shore, for he could scarcely 
have seen where the land was whilst swimming in 
the water, as it was during the night-time that 
they started. 

Lo ! the dawn breaks ; but hardly had the day- 
light of the first morning of their voyage appeared, 
than one of the party, named Tapo, became insolent 
and disobedient to Turi. His chief was therefore 
very wroth with him, and hove him overboard into 
the sea ; and when Tapo found himself in the water, 
and saw the canoe shooting ahead, he called out to 
Turi quite cheerfully and jocosely, " I say, old fellow, 
come now, let me live in the world a little longer \" 
and when they heard him call out in this manner, 
they knew he must be under the protection of the 
god Maru, and said, " Here is Maru, here is Mara." 
So they hauled him into the canoe again, and saved 
his life. 

At last the seams of Turi's canoe opened in holes 
in many places, and the water streamed into it, 
and they rapidly dipped the bailers into the water 
and dashed it out over the sides ; Turi, in the 



214 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY 

meanwhile, reciting aloud an incantation, which 
was efficacious in preventing a canoe from being 
swamped ; they succeeded at length, by these 
means, in reaching a small island which lies in 
mid-ocean, which they named Rangitahua ; there 
they landed, and ripped all the old lashings out of 
the seams of the canoe, and re-lashed the top sides 
on to it, and thoroughly refitted it. 

Amongst the chiefs who landed there with them 
was one named Porua, whose canoe was called Te 
Ririno. They were carrying some dogs with them, 
as these would be very valuable in the islands they 
were going to, for supplying by their increase a 
good article of food, and skins for warm cloaks ; 
on this island, they, however, killed two of them, 
the names of which were "Whakapapa-tuakura and 
Tanga-kakariki ; the first of these they cooked and 
shared amongst them, but the second they cut up 
raw as an offering for the gods, and laid it cut open 
in every part before them, and built a sacred place, 
and set up pillars for the spirits, that they might 
entirely consume the sacrifice ; and they took the 
enchanted apron of the spirits, and spread it open 
before them, and wearied the spirits by calling 
on them for some omen, saying, " Come, mani- 
fest yourselves to us, O gods ; make haste and 
declare the future to us. It may be now, that we 
shall not succeed in passing to the other side of the 



THE EMIGRATION" OF TURI. 



215 



ocean ; but if you manifest yourselves to us, and 
are present with us, we shall pass there in safety." 
Then they rose up from prayer, and roasted with 
fire the dog which they were offering as a sacri- 
fice, and holding the sacrifice aloft, called over the 
names of the spirits to whom the offering was 
made ; and having thus appeased the wrath of the 
offended spirits, they again stuck up posts for them, 
saying as they did so — 

" 'T is the post which stands above there ; 1 
'T is the post which stands in the heavens, 
Near Atutahimarehua." 

Thus they removed all ill-luck from the canoes, 
by repeating over them prayers called Keuenga, 
Takanga, Whakainuinumanga, &c. &c. 

When all these ceremonies were ended, a very 
angry discussion arose between Potoru and Turi, as 
to the direction they should now sail in ; Turi per- 
sisted in wishing to pursue an easterly course, 
saying, " Nay, nay, let us still sail towards the 
quarter where the sun first flares up but Potoru 
answered him, " But I say nay, nay, let us proceed 
towards that quarter of the heavens in which the 
sun sets." Turi replied, " Why, did not Kupe, 
who had visited these islands, particularly tell us ? 
Now mind, let nothing induce you to turn the 
prow of the canoe away from that quarter of the 



216 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



heavens in which the sun rises/' However, Potoru 
still persisted in his opinion, and at last Turi gave 
up the point, and let him have his own way ; so 
they embarked and left the island of Rangitahua, 
and sailed on a westerly course. 

After they had pursued this course for some 
time, the canoe Ririno getting into the surf, near 
some rocks, was lost on a reef which they named 
Taputapuatea, being swept away by a strong cur- 
rent, a rapid current, by a swift running current, 
swiftly running on to the realms of death ; and the 
Ririno was dashed to pieces : hence to the present 
day is preserved this proverb, " You are as obsti- 
nate as Potoru, who persisted in rushing on to his 
own destruction." 

When the Ririno had thus been lost, Turi, in the 
Aotea, pursued his course towards the quarter of the 
rising sun, and whilst they were yet in mid-ocean, 
a child, whom he named Tutawa, was born to 
Turi ; they had then but nine sweet potatoes left, 
and Turi took one of these, leaving now but eight, 
and he offered the one he took as a sacrifice to the 
spirits, and touched with it the palate of little 
Tutawa, bom in mid-ocean, at the same time re- 
peating the fitting prayers. When they drew near 
the shore of these islands, one of the crew, named 
Tuanui-a-te-ra, was very disobedient and insolent 
to Turi, who, getting exceedingly provoked with 



THE EMIGRATION OF TURI. 



217 



him, threw him overboard into the sea. When 
they had got near enough to the shore to see dis- 
tinctly, they foolishly threw the red ornaments 
they wore on their heads, (named Pohutukawa,) 
into the sea, these being old, dirty, and faded, 
from length of wear, for they thought, although 
wrongly, the red things they saw in such abun- 
dance on the shore were similar ornaments. 

At length the Aotea is run up on the beach of 
these islands, and the wearied voyagers spring out 
of her on to the sands, and the first thing they re- 
mark are the footprints of a man ; they run to 
examine them, and find them to be those of Tua- 
nui-a-te-ra, whom Turi had shortly before thrown 
overboard ; there can be no doubt of this, because 
some of the footprints are crooked, exactly suiting 
a deformed foot which he had. 

Turi having rested after his voyage, determined 
to start and seek for the river Patea, which Kupe 
had described to him, and he left his canoe Aotea 
in the harbour, which he named after it. He tra- 
velled along the coast-line from Aotea to Patea, 
having sent one party before him, under Punga- 
rehu, ordering them to plant the stones of the 
berries of the Karaka-tree, which they had brought 
with them, all along their route, in order that so 
valuable an article of food might be introduced 

L 



218 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



into these islands. Turi,. who followed with an- 
other party after Pungareku, gave names to all 
the places as they came along ; when he reached 
the harbour of Kawhia, he gave it that name or 
the awhinga of Turi ; then he came to Marokopa, 
or the place that Turi wound round to another 
spot ; the river Waitara he named from the ta- 
rcmga, or wide steps which he took in fording it 
at its mouth ; Mokau, or Mockau, he named from 
his sleeping there ; at Manga- ti, they opened and 
spread out an enchanted garment named Hunokiko, 
and as all the people gazed at it, Turi named 
the place Matakitaki ; at another place (near the 
lake at the Gray institution at Taranaki), Turi took 
up a handful of earth to smell it, that he might 
guess whether the soil was good enough, and he 
named that place Hongihongi ; another place, six 
miles to the south of Taranaki, he named Tapuwae, 
or the footsteps of Turi ; another place he named 
Oakura, from the bright redness of the enchanted 
cloak Hunokiko ; another place Katikara, twelve 
miles south of Taranaki; another river he named 
Raoa, from a piece of food he was eating nearly 
choking him there ; another spot he named Ka- 
upoko-nui (a river thirty-four miles north-west 
of Patea), or the head of Turi ; when they ar- 
rived there, the enchanted cloak Hunokiko was 



THE EMIGKATION" OF TURI. 



219 



twice opened and spread out, so he called the spot 
Marae-kura ; a place that they encamped at he 
named Kapuni (a river at Waimate), or the encamp- 
ment of Turi ; another place he called Waingon- 
goro, or the place at which Turi snored ; another 
spot he named Tangahoe, after his paddle ; Ohin- 
gahape, he named after the crooked foot of Tua- 
nui-a-te-ra ; a head-land where there was a natural 
bridge running over a cave, he named Whiti-kau, 
from the long time he was fording in the water to 
turn the headland, because he did not like to cross 
the bridge (this is five miles north of Patea). 

At length he reached the river which Kupe had 
described to him ; there he built a pa, or fortress, 
which he named Eangitaawhi, and there he erected 
a post which he named Whakatopea, and he built 
a house which he named Matangirie, and he laid 
down a door-sill, or threshold, which he named 
Paepaehakehake ; and he built a small elevated 
storehouse to hold his food, and he named it Pae- 
ahua; the river itself he named Patea ; and he dug 
a well which he named Parara-ki-te-uru. The farm 
he cultivated there he named Hekeheke-i-papa ; the 
wooden spade he made he called Tipu-i-ahuma : 
then he had his farm dug up, and the chant they 
sang to encourage themselves, and to keep time as 
they dug, was — 

L2 



220 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



" Break up our goddess mother, 
Break up the ancient goddess earth ; 
We speak of you, oh, earth ! but do not you disturb 
The plants we have brought hither from Hawaiki the noble ; 
It was Maui who scraped the earth in heaps round the sides, 
In Kuratau." 

There they planted the farm ; they had but eight 
seed potatoes, but they divided these into small 
pieces, which they put separately into the ground ; 
and when the shoots sprang up, Turi made the 
place sacred with prayers and incantations, lest any 
one should venture there and hurt the plants ; the 
name of the incantation he used was Ahuaroa ; 
then harvest-time came, they gathered in the crop 
of sweet potatoes, and found that they had eight 
hundred baskets of them. The deeds above related 
were those which our ancestor Turi performed ; 
Kongo-rongo was the name of his principal wife, 
and they had several children, from whom sprang 
the tribes of Ahaganui and the Ngate-mamui 
tribe. 



•T 



LEGEND OF THE EMIGRATION OF 
MANAIA, 

(the progenitor of the ngati-awa tribes). 

The cause which led Manaia to come here from 
Hawaiki, was his being very badly treated by a 
large party of his friends and neighbours, whom, 
according to the usual custom when a chief has 
any heavy work to be done, he had collected to 
make his spears for him, for they violently ravished 
his wife Eongotiki. 

It chanced thus — One day Manaia determined 
to have his neighbours all warned to come to a 
great gathering of people for the purpose of making- 
spears for him, so he sent round a messenger to 
collect them, and the messenger arrived at the 
place of Tupenu, who listened to his message, and 
he being chief of the tribe who lived at that place, 
encouraged his people to go in obedience to the 
message of Manaia ; they went and set to work, 
and after some time it happened that Manaia felt 
a wish to go and catch some fish for his workmen ; 



222 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



so he went off in his canoe with several of his 
people. After he had been gone for some time the 
workmen proposed amongst themselves to assault 
Rongotiki, the wife of Manaia ; and they carried 
their intentions into execution without any one 
knowing what they were doing; all this time Manaia, 
suspecting nothing, was paddling in his canoe out to 
sea, and when he reached the fishing-ground, they 
lay on their paddles. Manaia's people soon caught 
plenty of fish, but he had not even a single bite, 
until at last, as they were on the point of return- 
ing, he felt a fish nibbling at his hook, so he gave a 
jerk to his line to pull it up ; and when he got the fish 
up to the side of the canoe, to his surprise he saw 
that the hook was not in the mouth of the fish, but 
fast in its tail ; and as this had long been esteemed 
as a sign that your wife was being insulted by 
somebody, he at once knew how his had been 
treated by his workmen ; without waiting, there- 
fore, a moment longer, he said to his crew, " Heave 
up the anchor, we will return to the shore so 
they hove up the anchor, and shaped a course for 
the landing-place on the main ; whilst they were 
pulling into the shore, Manaia took the fish he 
had caught, and with the hook still fast in its 
tail, tied it on to one of the thwarts of the canoe, 
and left it there, in order that when Rongotiki saw 
it she might know without his telling her, that he 



TREE F E R X. 



THE EMIGRATION OF MANAIA. 



223 



was aware that she had been badly treated by his 
workmen. 

At length his canoe reached the shore, and the 
crew jumping out, hauled it up on the sandy 
beach, and Manaia leaving it there, walked home 
towards his village ; when he had got near home, 
his wife seeing him approach, arose and made the 
fire ready to roast some fern-root for her husband, 
who she thought would come back hungry ; and 
when he reached home the fire was lighted, and 
she was sitting by the side of it roasting the 
fern-root, and she made signs to him by which he 
might know what had happened ; but he knew 
it already from the manner in which his hook had 
caught in the tail of the fish ; then he sent his 
wife to fetch the fish, saying, " Mother, go and 
fetch the fish I have caught from my canoe so 
she went, and when she got there, she found that 
there were no fish but the single one, hanging to 
the thwart of the canoe, with a hook fast in its 
tail ; then she took that fish and carried it home with 
her, and when she got there, Manaia said, " That is 
the fish I meant you to bring, lest you should have 
said that I did not know what had taken place 
until you told me/' 

Manaia then turned over in his mind various 
plans for revenging himself upon the people who 
had acted in so brutal a manner towards his wife, 



224 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and he consulted with his own tribe how they might 
destroy those who had thus injured him ; when 
the tribe of Manaia heard what had taken place, 
they all arose to seek revenge ; but before the 
fighting which arose from this affair broke out, 
Manaia went to the people who had wronged his 
wife, and told them, " That he hoped they would 
make the spears large and strong, and not put him 
off with weak things, but rather make them stout 
and strong ; " this was a mere piece of deceit on 
his part, in order that when he attacked them, 
their weapons might be too heavy readily to 
parry their enemies' blows with them. 

All these preparations having been made, Ma- 
naia lay in ambush with some of his people, and 
when the opportunity of rushing on their enemies 
presented itself, Manaia nudged with his elbow his 
son, Tu-ure-nui, who was ]ying by his side, to 
encourage him to distinguish himself by rushing 
in, and killing the first man of the enemy ; but 
being afraid to go he did not move, and whilst 
Manaia was encouraging him in vain, another 
young man, the name of whose father had never 
been told by his mother, rushed forward and slew 
the first of the enemy, and as with his weapon he 
struck him down, he cried out, " The first slain of 
the enemy belongs to me, to Kahu-kaka-nui, the 
son of Manaia;" then for the first time Manaia 



THE EMIGKATION OF MANAIA. 



225 



knew that this young man was his son, his last 
born son ; he had before thought that Tu-ure-nui 
had been his only son ; but when the other young 
man called out his name, he knew that he also was 
his son, and, pleased with his courage, he loved him 
very much. 

The people lying in ambush, all followed the 
youth when he rushed on their enemies, and slaugh- 
tered them ; but their chief Tupenu fled by the way 
of the beach of Pikopikoi-whiti, and Manaia pursued 
him closely, but was not fleet enough of foot to 
catch him ; then he called out to his wife, Kongo- 
tiki, to utter incantations to weaken his enemy ; 
and she did so, repeating an incantation termed 
Tapuwae, and when she had finished that, by her 
enchantments she rendered the flying warrior faint 
and feeble, so that Manaia rapidly gained on him, 
caught him, and slew him. 

Thus perished Tapenu and the party of people 
whom he had taken with him to work for Manaia; 
the report of what had occurred soon spread 
throughout the country, and at last reached the 
tribe of Tupenu ; and when they heard it, they said, 
" Your relatives have perished/' Their army col- 
lected and started to avenge themselves on Manaia 
and his tribe, and to destroy them ; they slew 
many of them, and continued from time to time to 



226 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



attack them, so that their numbers dwindled away, 
till at length Manaia began to reflect within 
himself, saying, " Ah, ah, my warriors are wasting 
away, and by and bye, perhaps, I also shall be 
slain ; rather than let this state of things continue, 
I had better abandon this country, and, removing 
to a great distance, seek a new one for myself 
and my people/' 

Having made up his mind to act in this way, he 
began to repair a canoe and to fit it for sea; the 
name of the canoe was Tokomaru, it belonged to 
his brother-in-law : when it was fit for sea, be 
asked his brother-in-law, " Will you not consent to 
accompany me on this voyage ? " and the latter 
asked in reply, " Where do you want me to accom- 
pany you to V Manaia said, " I wish you to bear 
me company on this voyage which I am about to 
undertake, to search for a new and distant country 
for both of us but his brother-in-law, when he 
understood what Manaia was pressing him to do, 
replied, "No, I will not go with you;" Manaia 
answered, " That is right, do you remain here." 

When the canoe was quite fit for sea, they 
dragged it down to the water, and hauled it into 
the sea until it floated ; then they brought down 
the cargo and stowed it away, and Manaia embarked 
in it with his wife, his children, and his depend- 



THE EMIGKATTON OF MANAIA. 



227 



ants, and then he said to some of his warriors, 
" Let my brother-in-law now be slain as an offering 
for the gods, that they may prove propitious to this 
canoe of ours." 

So he called to his brother-in-law, who was 
standing on the shore, bidding him farewell ; 
" I say, wade out to me for one minute, that I 
may tell you something, and take my last fare- 
well, for I am going to part for ever from you, 
leaving you here behind me/' 

When Manaia's brother-in-law heard this, he be- 
gan to wade out to him ; at first the water hardly 
covered his ankles, next it touched his knees, at last 
it came up above his loins, and when it had reached 
so high he said, " Shove the canoe in a little nearer 
the shore, I shall be under water directly \" but 
Manaia answered him, "Wade away, there is no 
depth of water and to deceive him better, he kept 
on pretending to touch the bottom with a stick ; 
and the poor fellow having no suspicion, believed 
what Manaia said, that the water was not deep ; 
but Manaia had spoken before to his people, say- 
ing, " Let him come on, out into the deep water, 
until his feet cannot touch the bottom, then seize 
him by the head and slay him/' At length his 
feet could no longer touch the bottom, and he 
found himself swimming close to the canoe ; then 
Manaia seized him by the head, with one blow of 



228 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY 

his stone battle-axe he clave it, and his brother-in- 
law perished. 

Having thus slain his victim, he caught up his dog 
which had swam out with its master, and lifting it 
into the canoe, he sailed away, to search for a new 
country for himself. 

He sailed on and on, and had proceeded very 
far from the land they had quitted, when one day 
the dog Manaia had taken into the canoe scented 
land, and howled loudly, struggling to get loose 
and jump overboard into the water ; the people 
in the canoe were much surprised at this, and 
said, "Why, what can be the matter with the 
dog?" And some of them said, "We'd better let 
him go if he wishes it, and see what comes 
of it \" so they let the clog loose, and he jumped 
overboard, and swam on ahead of the canoe, 
howling loudly as he went, and this he continued 
to do, till at last night fell on them : the canoe 
still followed for a long time the low faint howl- 
ing of the dog, which they could only indis- 
tinctly hear ; at last he had got so far off they 
could no longer distinguish it, but the dog, after 
swimming for a long time, finally reached land. 

In the meantime the canoe came following 
straight on the track which the dog had taken, 
and when at length the night ended, and the day 
began to break, they again heard the howling 



THE EMIGKATION OF MANAIA. 



229 



of the dog, which had landed close to the stranded 
carcass of a whale ; they pulled eagerly to the 
shore, and as soon as they reached it, there they 
saw the |whale lying stranded, and the dog by 
its side ; and there they landed on this island, — 
on Aotea. 

They were rejoiced, indeed, when they ascer- 
tained this was the country for which they had 
been seeking ; first, they allotted out equally 
amongst them the whale they had found ; but 
first Manaia addressed his men, saying, " We must 
now build a house to shelter us, and then we will 
cut up the whale." His people at once obeyed 
their chief's directions ; some of them began to 
collect materials for building a shelter, and others 
to clear spots of ground, and to prepare them for 
planting. 

Some few of them called out, " Here is the 
best place for our village ; " whilst others, on the 
contrary, cried out, " No, no, this is the best place 
for it;" and others still, who had got a little 
further along the beach, cried out, " Here is still a 
better place ; " and others, yet further ahead, 
said, " Here, here, this is the best place we have 
yet seen y' thus all were led to leave their proper 
work, and to wander a long way along the shore, 
exploring the new country, and seeking for a site 
for their future home ; at last they found that little 



230 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



by little they had been drawn a long way from the 
spot where they had landed, and from the whale 
which they had found. 

Now there were some other canoes coming close 
after the canoe Tokomaru, which presently made the 
land too, and reached the shore just at the point 
where the Tokomaru had been drawn up upon the 
beach, and they saw the marks of the Tokomaru 
upon the sand, and the sheds that had been put 
up, and the bits of land that had been cleared ; 
and they, without delay, began to claim each one 
as his own, the sheds, the cleared ground, and 
the whale, which all belonged to the people of the 
canoe which had first landed. 

Then they went to search for the people who had 
come in that canoe, and when they had found 
them, each party saluted the other, and when their 
mutual greetings were over, those who had come 
in the first canoe asked those who had come in 
the second, " When did you arrive here V And 
they answered them by saying, " When did you 
arrive here V* Those of the first canoe answered, 
"A long time ago." Then the people of the 
second canoe answered, " And we also arrived a 
long time ago." Those who had come in the first 
canoe now replied, " Nay, nay, we arrived here be- 
fore you." Then those of the second canoe answered, 
" Nay, nay, but we arrived here before you and 



THE EMIGRATION OF MANAIA. 231 



they continued thus disputing, arguing each party 
with the other. 

At last Manaia asked them, "What are the 
proofs you give to show when you arrived here V 
And they answered, " That is all very well ; but 
what proofs have you to show when you arrived 
here V But Manaia replied, " The proof I have to 
show when I arrived here is a whale of mine which 
I found upon the beach." Then the people who 
had come in the second canoe answered, " No, 
indeed, that whale belongs to us/' But Manaia 
answered quite angrily, " No ; I say that whale 
belongs to me ; just look you, you will find my 
sheds standing there, and my temporary encamp- 
ment, and the pieces of land which my people have 
cleared." But the others answered him, " Nay, 
indeed those are our sheds, and our pieces of cleared 
land ; and as for the whale, it is our whale ; now 
let us go and examine them." 

So the whole party returned together, until 
they came to the place where they had landed, 
and when they saw all these things there, Manaia 
said, " Look you, that whale belongs to me ; as well 
as those sheds and the cleared pieces of land." 
But the others laughed at him and said, "Why 
you must have gone mad, all these houses belong to 
us, and the clearings, and that whale too." And 
Manaia, who was now quite provoked, replied, " I 



232 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



say no ; the clearings are mine, the sheds are mine, as 
well as the whale/' The others, however, answered 
him, " Very well, then, if that is the case, where is 
your sacred place V But Manaia replied, " Where is 
your sacred place also then?" And they answered, 
" Come along, and see it." And they all went to- 
gether to see the sacred place of these newly-arrived 
people, and when they saw it, Manaia believed them. 

Although he gave credit to the fact of their 
having arrived first, Manaia was sorely perplexed 
and troubled, and he abandoned altogether the part 
of the country he had first reached, and started 
again to seek for another for himself, for his rela- 
tions, and his people ; they coasted right along 
the shores of the island from Whangaparoa, and 
doubled the North Cape, and from thence made a 
direct course to Taranaki, and made the land at 
Tongaporutu, between Pariwinihi and Mokau, and 
they landed there, and remained for some time, 
and left the god they worshipped there ; the name 
of then god was Rakeiora. 

They then turned to journey back towards 
Mokau : some of them went by land along the 
coast line, and others in their canoe, the two 
parties keeping in sight of one another as they exa- 
mined the coast ; and when they reached the river 
Mokau those in the canoe landed, and they left 
there the stone anchor of their canoe ; it is still 



THE EMIGRATION OF MANAIA, 233 

lying near the mouth of the river, on its north side, 
and the present name of the rock is the Punga- 
o-Matori. Then they pulled back in the Toko- 
maru, to Tongaporutu, and leaving the canoe 
there, explored the country unto Pukearuhe, 
thence they went on. as far as Papatiki, and 
there descended "to the shore to the beach of 
Kukuriki, and travelling along it, they reached 
the river of Onaero, forded it, and passed the 
plain of Motunui, and Kaweka, and Urenui ; 
that river had a name before Manaia and his 
people reached it ; but when Manaia arrived 
there with his son, Tu-ure-nui, he changed its 
name, and called it after his son, Tu-ure-nui ; 
and they forded the river, and travelled on until 
they reached Kohutu, at the mouth of the river 
Waitara, and they dwelt there, and there they 
found people living, the native inhabitants of these 
islands ; but Manaia and his party slew them, and 
destroyed them, so that the country was left for 
himself and for his descendants, and for his tribe 
and their descendants, and Manaia and his followers 
destroyed the original occupants of the country, in 
order to obtain possession of it. 

Manaia was the ancestor of the Ngati-Awa tribe ; 
he fought two great battles in Hawaiki, the names 
of which were Kirikiriwawa and Rotorua ; the 



234 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



fame of Ms weapons resounded there — their names 
were Kihia and Eakea ; and there also was known 
the fame of his son, of Kahu-kaka-nui-a-Manaia, of 
the youth who was baptized with the baptism of 
children whose fathers are not known. 



THE STORY OF HINE-MOA, 

(the maiden of eotoeua). 



And the man said to him, "Now, O governor, 
just look round you, and listen to me, for there is 
something worth seeing here ; that very spot that 
you are sitting upon, is the place on which sat our 
great ancestress Hine-Moa, when she swam over 
here from the main. But I'll tell you the whole 
story. 

" Look you now, Rangi-Uru was the name of 
the mother of a chief called Tutanekai ; she was, 
properly, the wife of Whakaue-Kaipapa (the great 
ancestor of the Ngatiwhakaue tribe) ; but she at 
one time ran away with a chief named Tuwharetoa 
(the great ancestor of the Te Heukeu and the 
Ngatituwharetoa tribe) ; before this she had three 
sons by Whakaue, their names were Tawakeheimoa, 
Ngararanui, and Tuteaiti. It was after the birth 
of this third son, that Rangi-Uru eloped with 
Tuwharetoa, who had come to Rotorua as a stranger 
on a visit. From this affair sprang Tutanekai, 
who was an illegitimate child ; but finally, Wha- 
kaue and Rangi-Uru were united again, and she 



236 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



had another son whose name was Kopako ; and 
then she had a daughter whom they named Tupa ; 
she was the last child of Whakaue. 

" They all resided here on the island of Mokoia. 
Whakaue was very kind indeed to Tutanekai, 
treating him as if he was his own son ; so they 
grew up here, Tutanekai and his elder brothers, 
until they attained to manhood. 

" Now there reached them here a great report of 
Hine-Moa, that she was a maiden of rare beauty, 
as well as of high rank, for Urnukaria (the great 
ancestor of the Ngati Unui-karia-hapu, or sub- 
tribe), was her father ; her mother's name was 
Hine-Maru. When such fame attended her beauty 
and rank, Tutanekai and each of his elder bro- 
thers desired to have her as a wife. 

" About this time Tutanekai built an elevated 
balcony, on the slope of that hill just above you 
there, which is called Kaiweka. He had contracted 
a great friendship for a young man named Tiki ; 
they were both fond of music — Tutanekai played on 
the horn, and Tiki on the pipe ; and they used to 
go up into the balcony and play on their instru- 
ments in the night ; and in calm evenings the 
sound of their music was wafted by the gentle 
land-breeze across the lake to the village at Owhata, 
where dwelt the beautiful young Hine-Moa, the 
younger sister of Wahiao. 



THE MAIDEN OF KOTOKUA. 237 

" Hine-Moa could then hear the sweet-sounding 
music of the instruments of Tutanekai and of his 
dear friend Tiki, which gladdened her heart within 
her — every night the two friends played on their 
instruments in this manner — and Hine-Moa then 
ever said to herself, ' Ah ! that is the music of 
Tutanekai which I hear/ 

" For although Hine-Moa was so prized by her 
family, that they would not betroth her to any 
chief ; nevertheless, she and Tutanekai had met 
each other on those occasions when all the people 
of Rotorua come together. 

" In those great assemblies of the people Hine- 
Moa had seen Tutanekai, and as they often glanced 
each at the other, to the heart of each of them the 
other appeared pleasing, and worthy of love, so 
that in the breast of each there grew up a secret 
passion for the other. Nevertheless, Tutanekai 
could not tell whether he might venture to approach 
Hine-Moa to take her hand, to see would she press 
his in return, because, said he, ' Perhaps I may be 
by no means agreeable to her \ on the other hand, 
Hine-Moa's heart said to her, c If you send one of 
your female friends to tell him of your love, per- 
chance he will not be pleased with you/ 

" However, after they had thus met for many, 
many days, and had long fondly glanced each at the 
other, Tutanekai sent a messenger to Hine-Moa, to 



238 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



tell of his love ; and when Hine-Moa had seen the 
messenger, she said, 1 Eh-hu ! have we then each 
loved alike V 

" Some time after this, and when they had often 
met, Tutanekai and his family returned to their own 
village ; and being together one evening, in the large 
warm house of general assembly, the elder brothers of 
Tutanekai said, 1 Which of us has by signs, or by 
pressure of the hand, received proofs of the love of 
Hine-Moa V And one said, ' It is I who have \ 
and another said, 1 No ; but it is 1/ Then 
they also questioned Tutanekai, and he said, ( I 
have pressed the hand of Hine-Moa, and she 
pressed mine in return;' but his elder brothers 
said, 'No such thing; do you think she would take 
any notice of such a low-born fellow as you are ? ' 
He then told his reputed father, Whakaue, to 
remember what he would then say to him, because 
he really had received proofs of Hine-Moa's love ; 
they had even actually arranged a good while be- 
fore the time at which Hine-Moa should run away 
to him ; and when the maiden asked, £ What shall 
be the sign by which I shall know that I should 
then run to you?' he said to her, ' A trumpet will 
be heard sounding every night, it will be I who 
sound it, beloved — paddle then your canoe to that 
place/ So Whakaue kept in his mind this con- 
fession which Tutanekai had made to him. 



THE MAIDEN OF ROTOKUA. 239 

" Now always about the middle of the night 
Tutanekai, and his friend Tiki, went up into their 
balcony and played, the one upon his trumpet, the 
other upon his flute, and HiDe-Moa heard them, 
and desired vastly to paddle in her canoe to Tuta- 
nekai • but her friends suspecting something, had 
been careful with the canoes, to leave none afloat, 
but had hauled them all up upon the shore of the 
lake ; and thus her friends had always done for 
many days and for many nights. 

" At last she reflected in her heart, saying, 
' How can I then contrive to cross the lake to the 
island of Mokoia ; it can plainly be seen that 
my friends suspect what I am going to do/ So 
she sat down upon the ground to rest ; and 
then soft measures reached her from the horn 
of Tutanekai, and the young and beautiful chief- 
tainess felt as if an earthquake shook her to 
make her go to the beloved of her heart ; but then 
arose the recollection, that there was no canoe. At 
last she thought, perhaps I might be able to swim 
across. So she took six large dry empty gourds, 
as floats, lest she should sink in the water, three 
of them for each side, and she went out upon a 
rock, which is named Iri-iri-kapua, and from thence 
to the ed^e of the water, to the spot called Waire- 
rewai, and there she threw off her clothes and cast 
herself into the water, and she reached the stump 



240 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



of a sunken tree which used to stand in the lake, 
and was called Hinewhata, and she clung to it 
with her hands, and rested to take breath, and 
when she had a little eased the weariness of her 
shoulders, she swam on again, and whenever she 
was exhausted she floated with the current of the 
lake, supported by the gourds, and after recovering 
strength she swam on again ; but she could not 
distinguish in which direction she should proceed, 
from the darkness of the night ; her only guide was, 
however, the soft measure from the instrument of 
Tutanekai ; that was the mark by which she swam 
straight to Waikiinihia, for just above that hot- 
spring was the village of Tutanekai, and swim- 
ming, at last she reached the island of Mokoia. 

" At the place where she landed on the island, 
there is a hot-spring separated from the lake only 
by a narrow ledge of rocks ; this is it — it is called, 
as I just said, Waikimihia. Hine-Moa got into 
this to warm herself, for she was trembling all 
over, partly from the cold, after swimming in the 
night across the wide lake of Eotorua, and partly 
also, perhaps, from modesty, at the thoughts of 
meeting Tutanekai. 

" Whilst the maiden was thus warming herself 
in the hot-spring, Tutanekai happened to feel 
thirsty, and said to his servant, c Bring me a little 
water ; ' so his servant went to fetch water for 



THE MAIDEN OF ROTORUA. 241 

him, and drew it from the lake in a calabash, close 
to the spot where Hine-Moa was sitting ; the mai- 
den, who was frightened, called out to him in a 
graft voice like that of a man, ' Whom is that 
water for?' He replied, 'It's for Tutanekai/ 
1 Give it here, then/ said Hine-Moa. And he 
gave her the water, and she drank, and having 
finished drinking, purposely threw down the cala- 
bash, and broke it. Then the servant asked her, 
' What business had you to break the calabash of 
Tutanekai V But Hine-Moa did not say a word in 
answer. The servant then went back, and Tuta- 
nekai said to him, ' Where is the water I told you 
to bring me V So he answered, £ Your calabash 
was broken/ And his master asked him, 'Who 
broke it V and he answered, ' The man who is in 
the bath/ And Tutanekai said to him, ' Go back 
again then, and fetch me some water/ 

" He, therefore, took a second calabash, and went 
back, and drew water in the calabash from the 
lake ; and Hine-Moa again said to him, ' Whom is 
that water for ? ' so the slave answered as before, 
( For Tutanekai/ And the maiden again said, 
' Give it to me, for I am thirsty ; ' and the slave 
gave it to her, and she drank, and purposely threw 
down the calabash and broke it ; and these oc- 
currences took place repeatedly between those 
two persons. 

M 



242 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



At last the slave went again to Tutanekai, who 
said to him, 1 Where is the water for me V and his 
servant answered, ' It is all gone, your calabashes 
have been broken/ ' By whom ?' said his master. 
1 Didn't I tell you that there is a man in the bath ? ' 
answered the servant. 'Who is the fellow?' said 
Tutanekai. ' How can I tell ? ' replied the slave ; 
4 why, he's a stranger/ ' Didn't he know the water 
was for me ? ' said Tutanekai ; ' how did the 
rascal dare to break my calabashes ? why I shall 
die from rage/ 

" Then Tutanekai threw on some clothes, and 
caught hold of his club, and away he went, and 
came to the bath, and called out, c Where 's that 
fellow who broke my calabashes ? ' And Hine- 
Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was 
that of the beloved of her heart ; and she hid 
herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot- 
spring ; but her hiding was hardly a real hiding, 
but rather a bashful concealing of herself from Tuta- 
nekai, that he might not rind her at once, but only 
after trouble and careful searching for her y so he 
went feeling about along the banks of the hot- 
spring, searching everywhere, whilst she lay coyly 
hid under the ledges of the rock, peeping out, won- 
dering when she would be found. At last he 
caught hold of a hand, and cried out, ' Hollo, 
who's this?' And Hine-Moa answered, 'It's I, 



THE MAIDEN OF ROTORUA. 



243 



Tutanekai/ And he said, 'But who are you? — 
who's I V Then she spoke louder, and said, ' It's 
I, 't is Hine-Moa/ And he said, ' Ho ! ho ! ho ! 
can such in very truth be the case ? let us two 
go then to my house/ And she answered, ' Yes ; 1 
and she rose up in the water as beautiful as the 
wild white hawk, and stepped upon the edge of the 
bath as graceful as the shy white crane ; and he 
threw garments over her and took her, and they 
proceeded to his house, and reposed there ; and 
thenceforth, according to the ancient laws of the 
Maori, they were man and wife. 

" When the morning dawned, all the people of 
the village went forth from their houses to cook 
their breakfasts, and they all ate ; but Tutanekai 
tarried in his house. So Whakaue said, c This is 
the first morning that Tutanekai has slept in this 
way, perhaps the lad is ill — bring him here — 
rouse him up/ Then the man who was to fetch 
him went, and drew back the sliding wooden win- 
dow of the house, and peeping in, saw four feet. 
Oh ! he was greatly amazed, and said to himself, 
1 Who can this companion of his be V However, he 
had seen quite enough, and turning about, hurried 
back as fast as he could to Whakaue, and said to 
him, 1 Why, there are four feet, I saw them myself 
in the house. ' Whakaue answered, ' Who 's his 
companion then ? hasten back and see/ So back 

M 2 



244? POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

he went to the house, and peeped in at them again, 
and then for the first time he saw it was Hine- 
Moa. Then he shouted out in his amazement, 
' Oh ! here's Hine-Moa, here's Hine-Moa, in the 
house of Tutanekai \ and all the village heard 
him, and there arose cries on eveiy side — 1 Oh ! 
here's Hine-Moa, here's Hine-Moa with Tutanekai.' 
And his elder brothers heard the shouting, and 
they said, 1 It is not true ! ' for they were very 
jealous indeed. Tutanekai then appeared com- 
ing from his house, and Hine-Moa following 
him, and his elder brothers saw that it was in- 
deed Hine-Moa ; and they said, ' It is true ! it is 
a fact !' 

" After these things, Tiki thought within him- 
self, ' Tutanekai has married Hine-Moa, she whom 
he loved ; but as for me, alas I I have no wife ;' 
and he became sorrowful, and returned to his own 
village. And Tutanekai was grieved for Tiki ; and 
he said to Whakaue, ' I am quite ill from grief for 
my friend Tiki ; ' and Whakaue said, c What do 
you mean V And Tutanekai replied, 1 1 refer to 
my young sister Tupa, let her be given as a wife to 
my beloved friend, to Tiki •' and his reputed father 
Wakaue consented to this ; so his young sister Tupa 
was given to Tiki, and she became his wife. 

" The descendants of Hine-Moa and of Tutanekai 
are at this very day dwelling on the lake of Rotu- 



THE MAIDEN OF EOTOEUA. 245 

rua, and never yet have the lips of the offspring 
of Hine-Moa forgotten to repeat tales of the great 
beauty of their renowned ancestress Hine-Moa, and 
of her swimming over here ; and this too is the 
burden of a song still current/' 



THE STORY OF MARU-TTJAHU, THE SON 
OF HOTUNUI, AND OF KAHURARE-MOA, 
THE DAUGHTER OF PAKA. 

Hotunui was one of those chiefs who arrived in 
New Zealand from a land beyond the ocean. The 
Tainui was the canoe in which he arrived in these 
islands. He left Kawhia, where he first settled, 
and came overland to Hauraki, and finally took 
up his residence in a village called Whakatiwai. 
He had at Kawhia, a son called Maru-tuahu, but 
Hotunui was not there when this child was born. 

The cause which made him come from Kawhia 
to Hauraki was a false accusation that was 
brought against him regarding a store-house of 
sweet potatoes belonging to another chief, a friend 
of his. The accusation arose in this way. Ho- 
tunui went out of his house one night, almost at 
the same moment that a thief had gone out to rob 
this storehouse ; it was very unfortunate that they 
should both have gone out nearly at the same 
moment, just about midnight. When day dawned, 
Hotunui came out of his house, and people in the 
morning had seen his footsteps, right along the 



STORY OF MARU-TUAHU. 



247 



path by which the thief had gone, and there were 
the sweet potatoes dropped all along the path, and 
as the soles of Hotunui's feet were very large, his 
footprints had quite erased those of the thief ; so 
presently they brought an accusation against II o- 
tunui, that he had stolen the sweet potatoes. At 
this time Hotunui's wife had just conceived Maru- 
tuahu, but he was so overcome by shame at the 
accusation brought against him, that the thought 
came into his mind to run away from wife and 
all, and go to Hauraki to seek another resi- 
dence for himself. His corn was ready, and he 
had dug his farm, and prepared the ground for 
planting it, but had not yet put in the seed, 
when he went to his wife and said, "Now, re- 
member, when the child is born, if it is a boy call 
it Maru-tuahu, and if it is a girl, call it Pare-tuahu 
[either name meaning the field made ready for 
planting], in remembrance of that cultivation of 
mine, prepared for planting to no purpose." Then 
Hotunui went off to Hauraki, and resided at Wha- 
katiwai, and became the chief of the people of that 
country, and he took another wife, the young 
sister of a chief named Te Whatu, and she bore 
him a child named Paka. 

When Maru-tuahu came to man's estate, he took 
up his club, and asked his mother, saying, " Mother, 
show me the mountain range that is near my 



248 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



father's abode;" and the mother said, "Look my 
child towards the place of sunrise." And her son 
said, "What, there?" and he was answered by his 
mother, "Yes, that is it — Hauraki;" and Maru- 
tuahu answered, " 'T is well ; I understand." 

Then Maru-tuahu started with his slave, and 
travelled towards Hauraki, and they carried with 
them a spear for killing birds ; this they took 
as a means of procuring food on the journey, 
as they came by way of the wooded mountains 
where birds are plentiful ; they were a whole 
month before they arrived at Kohukohunui, and 
reached the outskirts of the forests there early one 
morning, at the same time that two young girls, 
the daughters of Te Whatu, the chief of Hauraki, 
were coming along the same path from the op- 
posite direction. Maru-tuahu was up in a forest 
tree, spearing Tui birds, at the moment when the 
two girls saw the slave sitting under the tree in 
which Maru-tuahu was killing birds, and his master's 
cloak lying on the ground by him. The two 
girls came merrily along the path ; the youngest 
sister was very beautiful, but the eldest was 
plain ; and when they saw the slave of Maru- 
tuahu, the youngest one, who had seen him first, 
called out playfully, " Ah ! there 's a man will 
make a nice slave for me." "Where?" said the 
eldest sister, " where is he ?" and the youngest 



STORY OF MARU-TUAHU. 



249 



replied, " There, there, cannot you see him sitting 
at the root of that tree V Then up they ran to- 
wards him, sportively contesting with one another 
whose slave he should be ; and the youngest 
got there first, and therefore claimed him as her 
slave. 

AH this time Maru-tuahu was peeping down at 
the two girls from the top of the tree ; and they 
asked the slave, saying, " Where is your master ? " 
he answered, " I have no master but him." Then 
the girls looked about, and there was the cloak 
lying on the ground, and a heap of dead birds ; 
and they kept on asking, "Where is he?" but it 
was not long before a flock of Tuis settled on the 
tree where Maru-tuahu was sitting ; he speared at 
them, and struck a Tui, which made the tree 
ring with its cries ; the girls heard it, and look- 
ing up, the youngest saw the young chief sitting 
in the top boughs of the tree ; and she at once 
called up to him, " Ah ! you shall be my husband " 
but the eldest sister exclaimed, "You shall be 
mine," and they began jesting and disputing be- 
tween themselves which should have him for 
a husband, for he was a very handsome young 
man. 

Then the two girls called up to him to come 
down from the tree, and down he came, and 
dropped upon the ground, and pressed his nose 

M 3 



250 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



against the nose of each of the young girls. They 
then asked him to come to their village with them ; 
to which he consented, but said, " You two go on 
ahead, and leave me and my slave, and we will 
follow you presently;" and the girls said, "Very 
well, do you come after us/' Maru-tuahu then told 
his slave to make a present to the girls of the food 
they had collected, and he gave them two bark 
baskets of pigeons, preserved in their own fat, and 
they went off to their village with these. Maru- 
tuahu stopped behind with his slave, and as soon 
as the girls had gone, he went to a stream, and 
washed his hair in the water, and then came 
back, and combed it very carefully, and after 
combing it, he tied it up in a knot, and stuck 
fifty red Kaka feathers in his head, and amongst 
them he placed the plume of a white heron, and 
the tail of a huia, as ornaments ; he thus looked 
extremely handsome, and said to his slave, "Now, 
let us go." 

It was not very long before the two young girls 
came back from the village to meet their so called 
husband, that they might all go in together ; and 
when they came up to him, there he was seated on 
the ground, looking quite different to what he did 
before, for he now appeared as handsome as the large 
crested cormorant; he had on outside, a Pueru cloak, 
within that, a cloak called the Kahakaha, and under 



STOEY OF MARU-TUAHU. 



251 



that again, a garment called the Kopu (this in 
ancient times made up the dress of a great chief) ; 
the two young girls felt deeply in love with him 
when they saw him, and they said to Mara', 
"Come along to our father's village with us;" 
and he again consented, and told his slave to keep 
with them, and as they all went along, Maru 
stopped a little until he was some way behind, 
for he thought that the girls had not found out 
who he was ; as they proceeded, seeing that 
Maru did not follow them fast, they asked his 
slave, who kept along with them, " What is the 
name of your master?" and the slave answered, 
" Is there no chief of the west coast of the 
island whose fame has reached this place ?" and 
the young girls said, "Yes, the fame of one man 
has reached this place, the fame of Maru-tuahu, the 
son of Hotunui;" and the slave answered, "This 
is he ; " and the girls replied, " Dear, dear, we had 
not the least idea that it was he." By this time 
Maru' was coming up again to join them, for he 
guessed the girls had asked his slave who he was, 
and that they had been told, but the girls ran off 
together to Hotunui, and their father Te Whatu, to 
inform them who was coming, as they had pre- 
viously left the old men waiting for their return ; 
but presently the two girls changed their plan, and 
arranged between themselves, that the youngest 



252 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



should run quickly to tell Hotunui that his son 
was coming, and that the eldest sister should 
be left to lead Maru-tuahu to the village ; and 
in this way they proceeded, those who were 
going slowly to the village loitering along, whilst 
the younger sister was far ahead, running as 
fast as she could, and crying out as she came near 
the village, " Are you there, Hotunui ? here \s 
your son coming — here is Maru-tuahu." Then Ho- 
tunui called out with a loud voice, "Where is he?" 
and she replied, " Here he comes, he is coming 
along close behind me ; make haste and have the 
floor of the house covered with fine mats for him, 
so that he may have a fitting reception." 

Maru-tuahu soon came in sight, and as he 
was seen approaching, he looked as handsome as 
the beautiful crested cormorant. The people got 
upon the defences of the village, and ran outside 
the gates, to look at him ; and the young girls all 
waved the corners of their cloaks, crying out, 
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, make 
haste, make haste ; " and he stepped boldly out, 
and reached the village. As soon as he had ar- 
rived there, they all wept over him ; and when 
they had done weeping, they sat down, and 
formed a semicircle, with Maru-tuahu at the 
open part ; and Hotunui stood up to make a speech 
of welcome to his son, and he spoke thus : " Wei- 



STORY OF MARU-TITAHU. 



253 



come, welcome, oh, my child, welcome to Hauraki, 
welcome. You are very welcome. You have 
suddenly appeared here, urged by your own affec- 
tions. You are very welcome/' Having said 
this, Hotunui sat down again ; then Maru-tuahu 
jumped up to make a speech in reply, and he said, 
" That is right, that is right, oh, my father, call 
out to your child, ' You are welcome/ Here I am 
arrived at Hauraki, here I am seeking out my 
father's village in Hauraki, but I, who am the 
mere slave of my father, can say nothing in answer 
to his welcome ; here I am arrived at your village, 
it is for you to speak ; a young man just arrived 
from the forests has no fitting word to say in your 
presence." 

Thus he ended his speech, and a feast was spread 
out, and they all fell to eating, for they had killed 
ten dogs for the feast, and the chiefs all ate, and 
the two young girls ; but, although no one knew it, 
the two sisters were all the time quarrelling with 
each other as to which of them should have Maru- 
tuahu for a husband: the heart of one of them 
whispered to her, he shall be mine ; but the heart 
of the other young girl said just the same thing 
to her. 

The feast being ended, they left the common 
part of the fortress where food was eaten, and 
moved on one side, to the sacred precincts. When 



254 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



the evening came on a fire was kindled in the 
house, and the eldest girl not seeing her younger 
sister, went to her father to ask for her, and was 
told that she had been given as a wife to Maru- 
tuahu. At this she was exceedingly vexed, and 
provoked with her sister ; for although she was 
plain, she thought to herself, I am very pretty, 
and I am sure, there's not the least reason why 
Maru-tuahu should be frightened at me ; and she 
went off to quarrel with her younger sister ; but 
Mara-tuahu did not like her upon account of her 
plainness, and her pretty sister kept him as her 
husband. 

Te Paka, the son of Hotunui, the nephew of Te 
Whatu, and the younger brother of Maru-tuahu, 
had grown up to be a young man, so they gave 
him the elder daughter of Te Whatu to be his 
wife ; thus the elder sister was married, as well as 
the young one, who was given to Maru-tuahu for 
his wife; and Te Paka's wife bore him a daughter, 
whom they called Te Kahureremoa. 

The youngest daughter of Te "Whatu, whom 
Maru-tuahu married, bore him three children, 
Tama-te-po, Tama-te-ra, and Whanaunga ; from 
Tama-te-po sprang the Ngati-Rongou tribe ; from 
Tama-te-ra sprang the tribe of Ngati-Tama-te-ra, 
and from Whanaunga sprang the Ngati- Whanaunga 
tribe. 



STORY OF MARU-TUAHU. 



255 



"Whilst Maru-tuahu was living at Hauraki, his 
father Hotunui told him how very badly some of 
the people of that place had treated him ; these 
were the facts of the case, as the old chief related 
them to him. — " One day, when the canoes of the 
tribe came in full of fish, after hauling their nets, 
he sent down one of his servants from his house 
to the canoe to bring back some fish for him, 
and when the servant ran down for this purpose, 
the man who owned the nets said to him, 
' Well, what brings you here V upon which his 
servant answered, ' Hotunui sent me down, to 
bring up some fish for him, he quite longs to taste 
them/ Upon which the owner of the nets cursed 
Hotunui in the most violent and offensive manner, 
saying, 4 Is his head the flax that grows in the 
swamp at Otoi ? or is his topknot flax, that the 
old fellow cannot go there to get some flax to make 
a net for himself with, instead of troubling me ? ' 
When Hotunui's servant heard this, he returned at 
once to the house, and his master not seeing the 
fish, said, ' Well, tell me what is the matter;' so 
he replied, ' I went as you told me, and I asked 
the man who had been hauling the net for some 
fish ; and he only looked up at me. Again I 
asked him for some fish ; and then he said, Who 
sent you here to fetch fish, pray? Then I told 
him, Hotunui sent me down to bring up some fish 



256 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



for him, he quite longs to taste them ; then the 
man cursed you, saying to me, Is Hotunui/s head 
the flax that grows in the swamp at Otoi ; or is 
his topknot flax, that the old fellow cannot go 
there, to get some flax to make a net with for 
himself?' " 

When Hotunui had told this story to Maru- 
tuahu, he said, " Now oh, my son, this tribe is a 
very bad one, they seem bent upon lowering the 
authority of their chiefs." 

The heart of Maru-tuahu felt very gloomy when 
he heard his father had been treated thus, and 
Hotunui said to him, " You may well look sad, my 
son, at hearing what I have just said ; this tribe is 
composed of very bad people." And Maru-tuahu 
replied, " Leave them alone, they shall find out what 
such conduct leads to." 

Then Maru-tuahu began to catch and dry great 
quantities offish for a feast, and he worked away with 
his men at making fishing-nets, until he had col- 
lected a very great number ; it was in the winter 
that he began to make these nets, and the winter, 
spring, summer, and part of autumn passed, before 
they were finished ; then he sent a messenger to 
the tribe who had cursed his father, to ask them to 
come to a feast, and to help him to stretch these 
nets ; and when the messenger came back, Maru- 
tuahu asked him, " Where are they?" and the mes- 



STORY OF MARII-TUAHU. 



257 



senger answered, " The day after to-morrow they 
will arrive here/' Then Maru-tuahu gave orders, 
saying, " To-morrow let the feast be ranged in 
rows, so that when they arrive here they may find 
it all ready for them/' Upon this they all retired 
to rest, and when the dawn appeared they arranged 
the food to be given to the strangers in rows : the 
outside of the rows was composed of fish piled up ; 
but under these was placed nothing but rotten wood 
and filth, although the exterior made a very goodly 
show. He intended this feast to be a feast at 
which those who came as guests should be slaugh- 
tered, in revenge for the curse against Hotunui, 
which had exceedingly pained his heart. 

Soon after daybreak the next morning the 
guests came, and seeing the piles of provisions 
which were laid out for them, they were ex- 
ceedingly rejoiced, and longed for the time of 
their distribution, and when they might touch 
this food, little thinking how dearly they were 
to pay for it. The guests had all arrived and 
taken their seats upon the grass, when Marutuahu 
and his people came together ; — they were only 
one hundred and forty. 

As they were to stretch the great net made up 
of all the small ones upon the next morning, on 
that evening they put all the nets and ropes 
into the water to soak them, in order to soften the 



258 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



flax of wliich they were made, so that they might 
be more easily stretched ; and when the morning 
dawned those who had come for the purpose began 
to draw out the net, stretching the rope and the 
bottom of the net along the ground, and pegging it 
tight down from corner to corner, and thus whilst 
Maru-tuahu's people were preparing food for them 
to eat, the others worked away at stretching the 
net taut, and pegging it fast to the ground to hold 
it ; it was not long before they had finished this 
and had put on the weights to sink it. 

Maru-tuahu sent a man to see whether they had 
finished stretching the net, and when the man 
came back, he said, " Have they done stretching the 
net?" and the man answered, "Yes, they have 
finished." Then Maru-tuahu said, " Let us go and 
lift the upper end of the net from the ground; — they 
have finished the lower end of it." Then the one 
hundred and forty men went with him, each one 
carrying a weapon, carefully concealed under his 
garments, lest their guests should see them ; and 
when they reached the place where the net was, 
they found the guests, nearly a thousand in num- 
ber, had finished stretching the lower end of the 
net. Then the priest of Maru-tuahu who was to 
consecrate the net said, " Let the upper end of the 
net be raised, so that the net may be stretched 
straight out;" and Maru-tuahu said, "Yes, let it 



STORY OF MARU-TUAHU. 



259 



be done at once, it is getting late in the day/' 
Then the one hundred and forty men began to 
lift up the net, with the left hand they seized 
the ropes to raise it, but with the right hand 
each firmly grasped his weapon, and Maru-tuahu 
shouted out, " Lift away, lift away, lift it well 
up when they had raised it high in the air, 
they walked on with it ; holding it up as if they 
were spreading it out, until they got it well over 
the strangers, who were either pegging the lower 
end down, or were seated on the ground looking 
on; then Maru-tuahu shouted out, " Let it fall \" 
and they let it fall, and caught in it their guests, 
nearly a thousand in number ; they caught every 
one of them in the net, so that they could not 
move to make any effectual resistance, and whilst 
some of the one hundred and forty men of Maru- 
tuahu held the net down, the rest slew with their 
weapons the whole thousand, not one escaped, whilst 
they lost not a single man themselves. Hence 
" The feast of rotten wood" is a proverb amongst 
the descendants of Maru-tuahu to this day. This 
feast of rotten wood was given at a place which 
was then named Pukeahau, but which was after- 
wards called Karihitangata (or, men were the 
weights which were attached to the net to sink 
it), upon account of the thousand people who were 
there slain by treachery in the net of Maru-tuahu ; 



260 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



for men were the weights that were attached to 
that net to sink it. After the death of all these 
people, the country they inhabited became the pro- 
perty of Maru-tuahu, and his heirs dwell there to 
the present clay. 

About the time that Te Kahureremoa, Paka's 
daughter, became marriageable, a large party of 
visitors arrived at Wharekawa, the village of Te 
Paka ; they came from Aotea, or the Great Barrier 
Island ; at their head was the principal chief 
of Aotea, and he brought in his canoes a present of 
two hundred and sixty baskets of mackerel for Te 
Paka, and they became such good friends, that they 
thought they would like to be connected ; so it 
was arranged that Te Paka's daughter, Te Kahu- 
reremoa, should be given as a wife to the son of 
that chief ; part of Te Paka s plan was to get 
possession of Aotea for his family, for he thought 
when his daughter had children, and they were 
grown up, that it was possible they would secure 
the island for their grandfather, or for their mother's 
family. 

When the party of visitors was about to return 
to Aotea, having formed this connection with Te 
Paka's tribe through the girl, her father gave her 
up to them to take to Aotea to her husband, and 
he told his daughter to go on board the canoe, and 
to accompany them to Aotea ; but he told her to 



STORY OF KAHUREREMOA. 



261 



no purpose, for she did not obey him ; in short, 
Te Kahureremoa refused to go. So the old chief 
to whom the canoes belonged said, " Never mind, 
never mind, leave her alone, we shall not be very 
long away, we shall soon return, we shall not be 
long before we are back and they left Te Kahu- 
reremoa with her father, and paddled off in their 
canoes. 

In one month's time they came back again, and 
brought with them a present of thirty baskets 
of mackerel, and as soon as they arrived they 
distributed these amongst their friends ; and down 
ran Te Kahureremoa from the village to the 
landing-place to take a basket of mackerel for 
herself. As soon as Paka saw this, he gave his 
daughter a sound scolding for going and taking 
the fish ; this is what Paka said to his daughter : 
" Pub that down, you shall not have it ; I wanted 
you to go and become the wife of the young 
chief of the place where these good fish abound, 
and you refused to go, therefore you shall not now 
have any." 

This was quite enough ; poor little Te Kahu- 
reremoa felt entirely overcome with shame, she left 
the basket of fish, dropping it just where she was, 
and ran back into the house, and began to sob and 
cry; then her thoughts suggested to her, that after 



262 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

this, it would be better that she should be no 
more seen by the eyes of her father, and that her 
father s face should be no more seen by her, and 
her heart kept on urging her to run away to 
Takakopiri, and to take him for her lord ; she had 
seen him, and liked him well; he was a great chief, 
and had abundance of food of the best kind on 
his estates ; plenty of potted birds of all kinds ; 
and kiwis, and Mores and wekas, and eels, and 
mackerel, and crayfish ; in short, he had abundance 
of all kinds of food, and was rich in every sort of 
property. 

As she thought of all this, the chief's young 
daughter continued weeping and sobbing in the 
house, quite overcome with shame, and when 
evening came she was still crying, but at night, 
she said to herself, " Now I '11 be off, whilst all 
the men are fast asleep so she got up and 
ran away, accompanied by her female slave. The 
next morning when the sun rose they found 
she was gone, and she had fled so far, that 
those who were sent to seek her came to the foot- 
prints of herself and her slave ; their edges had so 
sunk down, that the pursuers could not tell how 
long it was since she had passed. 

Waipuna was the village from which Te Kahu- 
reremoa started, and they had left Pukorokoro behind 



STORY OF KAHUREREMOA. 263 

them, and by the time it was full daybreak they 
had reached Waitakaruru, and as the full rays of 
the sun shone on the earth, they were passing 
above Pouarua ; then for a little time they travelled 
very fast and reached Riwaki, at the mouth of the 
river Piako; this they crossed and pushed on for 
Opani, and thence those in pursuit of them returned, 
they could follow them no further ; the tide also was 
flowing, which stopped the pursuit. 

Just then some of the canoes of the up-river 
country were returning from Ruawehea, and 
when the people in the canoes saw her, they 
raised loud cries of — " Ho, ho ! here's Te Kahu- 
reremoa, here 's the daughter of Paka she stepped 
into one of the canoes with them, and the people 
kept crying out the whole w T ay from the mouth of 
the river up its course as they ascended it, " Here's 
Te Kahureremoa and they rowed very fast, feeling 
alarmed at having so great a chieftainess on board, 
and so confused were they at her presence, that 
throughout the whole day they kept on bending 
their heads down to their very paddles, as they 
pulled. They stopped at Raupa, where the Awa-iti 
branches off to Tauranga, and there they spent one 
night ; and the next day they went over the range 
towards Katikati : the people of Raupa urged her 
to stop there for a little ; she, however, would not, 
but driven by the fond thoughts of her heart, she 



264 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



pressed onwards, and reached the summit of the 
ridge of Hikurangi, and looked down upon Kati- 
kati, and saw also Tauranga ; then the young girl 
turned, and looked round at the mountain at 
Otawa, and although she knew what it was, she 
liking to hear his name, and of his greatness, 
spoke to the people of the country, who, out of 
respect, were accompanying her, . and asking, said, 
" What is the name of yonder mountain V and 
they answered her, " That is Otawa." And the 
young girl asked again, " Is the country of that 
mountain rich in food V and they replied, " Oh, 
there are found Mores, and kiwis and welcas, and 
pigeons, and tuis ; why that mountain is famed 
for the variety and number of birds that inhabit 
it." Then the young girl took courage, and asked 
once more, " Whom does all that fruitful country 
belong to?" and they told her, " The Waitaka is 
the name of the tribe that inhabit that country, 
and Takakopiri is the chief of it. He is the 
owner of that mountain, and he is the great chief 
of the Waitaka ; and when the people of that 
tribe collect food from the mountains, they bear 
everything to him ; the food of all those districts, 
whatever it may be, belongs to that great Lord 
alone/' When the young girl heard all this, she 
said to the people, " I and my female slave are 
going there, to Otawa/' And the people said to 



STORY OF KAHUREREMOA. 



265 



her, " No ; is that really the case ? " and she said, 
" Yes, we are going there. Paka sent us there, 
that we should ask Takakopiri to pay him a 
visit at Wharekawa." She said this to deceive 
the people, and prevent them from stopping her ; 
and immediately started again upon her journey, 
and came down upon the sea-shore at Katikati. 
The Waitaha, the tribe of Takakopiri, inhabited 
that village ; and as soon as they saw the young 
girl coming, there arose joyful cries of — " Here is 
Kahureremoa! oh, here is the daughter of Paka!" 
and the people collected in crowds to gaze at the 
young chieffcainess : she rested at the village, and 
they immediately began to prepare food, and when 
it was cooked, they brought it to her, and she 
partook of it, and when she had done it was night- 
time ; then they brought plenty of firewood into the 
house, and made up a clear fire, so that the house 
might be quite light, and they all stood up to 
dance, that she might pass a cheerful evening. 

After they had all danced, they continued soli- 
citing Te Kahureremoa to stand up and dance 
also, whilst they sat looking on to see how grace- 
fully and beautifully she moved. Upon which 
she coyly said, " Ah, yes, that 's all very well ; 
do you want me to dance indeed %" At last, 
however, the young girl sprang up, and she had 

N 



266 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



hardly stretched forth her lovely arms in the atti- 
tude of the dance, before the people all cried out 
with surprise and pleasure at her beauty and grace ; 
her arms moved with an easy and rapid action like 
that of swimming ; her nimble lissom fingers were 
reverted till their tips seemed to touch the backs of 
the palms of her hands ; and all her motions were 
so light, that she appeared to float in the air ; 
then might be seen, indeed, the difference between 
the dancing of a nobly-born girl and a slave ; the 
latter being too often a mere throwing about of 
the body and of the arms. Thus she danced 
before them ; and when she had finished, all the 
young men in the place were quite charmed 
with her, and could think of nothing but of Te 
Kahureremoa. 

When night came on, and the people had dis- 
persed to their houses, the chief of the village came 
to make love to her, and said, that upon account of 
her great beauty he wished her to become his wife ; 
but she at once started up with her female slave, 
and notwithstanding the darkness, they plunged 
straight into the river, forded it, and proceeded 
upon their journey, leaving the chief overwhelmed 
with shame and confusion, at the manner in 
which Te Kahureremoa had departed : however, 
away she went, without any fearful thought, on 




NEW ZEALAND VEGETATION. 



STORY OF KAHTJREREMOA. 267 

her road to Tauranga, and by daybreak they 
had reached the Wairoa. When the people of 
the village saw her coming along in the dawn, 
they raised joyful cries of — " Here is Te Kahure- 
remoa \" and some of Takakopiri's people, who were 
there, would detain the young girl for a time : so 
she rested, and ate, and was refreshed ; thence she 
proceeded along the base of the mountains of 
Otawa, and at night slept at its foot ; and when 
morning broke, she and her slave continued their 
journey. 

There, just at the same time, was Takakopiri com- 
ing along the path, to sport in his forests at Otawa ; 
his sport was spearing birds, and right in the path- 
way there stood a tall forest tree covered with ber- 
ries, upon which large green pigeons had settled in 
flocks to feed. The two girls came toiling along, 
with their upper cloaks thrown round their shoul- 
ders like plaids, for the convenience of travelling, the 
slave-girl carrying a basket of food on her back for 
her mistress. As the girls drew near the forest 
they heard the loud flapping of the wings of a 
pigeon, for the young chief had struck one with his 
spear ; so they stopped at once, and Te Kahurere- 
moa said to her slave, " Somebody is there, just 
listen how that bird flaps its wings and her slave 
answered, "Yes, I hear it/' And Te Kahureremoa 
said, " That was the flapping of the wings of a 

N 2 



268 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



bird which somebody has speared ; " and her slave 
replied, " Yes, we had better go and see who it is." 
And they had not gone far before they heard a 
louder flap, as the bird was thrown upon the 
ground ; they at once approached the spot, and see- 
ing a heap of pigeons which had been killed, lying 
at the root of a tree, they sat down by them. Taka- 
kopiri had observed them coming along, and as he 
watched the girls from the tree, he said to himself, 
" These girls are travelling, and they come from a 
long distance, for their cloaks are rolled over their 
shoulders like plaids ; they are not from near here ; 
had they come from the neighbourhood they would 
have worn their cloaks hanging down in the usual 
way." 

Then the young chief came down from the 
tree, leaving his spear swinging to a bough : as 
he was descending, the girls saw him, and the slave 
knew him at once at a distance, and said, " Oh, 
my young mistress, that is Takakopiri " and Te 
Kahureremoa said, "No, no, it is not indeed;" 
but the slave said, " Yes, it is he, I saw him when 
he came to Hauraki :" and the young girl said, 
(t You are right, it is Takakopiri ;" and her slave 
said, "Yes, yes, this is the young chief who has 
caused us to come all this distance." By this time 
he had reached the ground, and he and the girls 
cried out at the same time to each other, " Wei- 



STOET OF KAHUREREMOA. 



269 



come, welcome ; " and the young man came up to 
them, and stooped down, and pressed his nose to 
the nose of each of them. Te Kahureremoa felt 
and knew whose face touched hers, but Takako- 
piri did not know whose nose he had pressed. 

Then he said to them, "We had better go to 
my village, which is on the other side of the 
forest j" and he pressed them to go, and the girls 
consented to go to the village with him : as they 
went along the path, he kept urging them to 
make haste, and Te Kahureremoa thought that he 
might still not know who she was, or he would 
never speak so impatiently, and tell her to make 
haste, so she made an excuse to arrange her dress, 
and stopped behind on one side of the path, in order 
that the young chief might have an opportunity of 
asking her slave who she was : as soon as he saw 
she had left the path, he went on with her slave 
a little distance until they had got over a 
rising ground, and then he asked her, saying, 
"Who is your mistress?" and the slave answered, 
" Is it my young mistress that you are asking 
about?" and the young chief said, "Yes, it is one 
nobly-born person asking after another ; " and the 
slave said, "Well, if it is my mistress you are 
asking about, the young lady's name is Te Kahu- 
reremoa and he answered her, "What! is this 
Te Kahureremoa, the daughter of Paka V and the 



270 



POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY. 



slave replied, "Yes, do you think there are more 
Pakas than one, or more Te Kahureremoas than 
one ? — this is really she \" and the young chief said, 
" Well, who would ever have suspected that this 
was she, or that a young girl from so distant a 
place could have reached this country? Let us 
sit down here at once, and wait until she comes 
up." In a very little time she appeared com- 
ing along to them, and the young chief called 
out to her, " You had really better make haste, or 
you '11 suffer from want of food, for it is still a 
long distance from this place to my village \" and 
when she had reached them he said, "Do you 
follow me, and pray do not lose time/' Then away 
he ran, and as soon as he got in sight of his 
own fortress, he began to call loudly to his people 
as he ran, " Te Kahureremoa has arrived ; the 
daughter of Paka is come/' " Why," said some of 
them, "our master is in love with that girl, and 
has lost his senses, and thinks she is really here 
but he kept calling out as he ran, "Here comes 
Te Kahureremoa, here comes the daughter of 
Paka." Then some of them said, "Why, after 
all, it must be true, or he would not continue 
calling it out in that way ;"■ and others said, "But 
who could ever believe that a young girl could 
have travelled to such a distance? the place is 
strange to her, and we are all strangers to her ; 



STORY OF KAHUREREMOA. 



271 



perhaps, after all, it is only the wind wafting up 
from afar this name which we hear called out in 
our ears/" However, they all either climbed up 
on the defences, or went outside to see who was 
coming ; and as soon as they saw the young girl 
approaching, they began to wave their garments, 
and to sing, in songs of welcome, — 

" Welcome, welcome, thou who comest 
From afar, from beyond the far horizon ; 
Our dearest child hath brought thee thence ; 
Welcome, oh, welcome here." 

And each of the many hundreds of persons who 
had come out to welcome her, as she passed his 
residence, prayed her to stop there ; but Takakopiri 
continued to say to her, "Press on, follow close, 
quite close, after me and so he led her through 
the throng of people, each of whom felt so moved 
towards the young girl, that, although they were 
in the very presence of their young lord, they 
could not help soliciting her to stop at each 
house as she came by. At length she arrived 
at Takakopirfs dwelling, and there for the first 
time she stopped and sat down, and the people 
came thronging in crowds to gaze upon her; and 
they spread before the two young girls food in 
abundance, the birds which the young chief had 
taken upon the mountains ; and a feast was made 
for the crowd that surrounded them ; thus they re- 



272 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



mained feasting, and admiring that young girl, and 
when the sun sank below the horizon, they were still 
sitting there gazing upon her ; the youths of the 
village thought they could never be weary of look- 
ing at her, but none dared to utter one word 
of love for fear of Takakopiri. Before a month 
had passed she was married to the young chief, 
and she bore him a daughter, named Tuparahaki, 
from whom, in eleven generations, or in about 275 
years, have sprung all the principal chiefs of the 
Ngatipaoa tribe who are now alive (in 1853). 



THE TWO SORCERERS, 

(KG TE MATENGA KIKI.) 



Kiki was a celebrated sorcerer, and skilled in 
magical arts ; lie lived upon the river Waikato. 
The inhabitants of that river still have this proverb, 
" The offspring of Kiki wither shrubs/' This pro- 
verb had its origin in the circumstance of Kiki 
being such a magician, that he could not go abroad 
in the sunshine ; for if his shadow fell upon any 
place not protected from his magic, it at once be- 
came tapu 3 and all the plants there withered. 

This Kiki was thoroughly skilled in the prac- 
tice of sorcery. If any parties coming up the 
river called at his village in their canoes as they 
paddled by, he still remained quietly at home, 
and never troubled himself to come out, but 
just drew back the sliding door of his house, 
so that it might stand open, and the strangers 
stiffened and died ; or even as canoes came pad- 
dling down from the upper parts of the river, he 
drew back the sliding wooden shutter to the win- 

N 3 



274 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



dow of his house, and the crews on board of them 
were sure to die. 

At length, the fame of this sorcerer spread ex- 
ceedingly, and resounded through every tribe, until 
Tamure, a chief who dwelt at Kawhia, heard with 
others, reports of the magical powers of Kiki, for 
his fame extended over the whole country. At 
length Tamure thought he would go and contend 
in the arts of sorcery with Kiki, that it might be 
seen which of them was most skilled in magic ; and 
he arranged in his own mind a fortunate season for 
his visit. 

When this time came, he selected two of his 
people as his companions, and he took his young 
daughter with him also ; and they all crossed over 
the mountain range from Kawhia, and came down 
upon the river Waipa, which runs into the Wai- 
kato, and embarking there in a canoe, paddled 
down the river towards the village of Kiki ; and 
they managed so well, that before they were seen 
by anybody, they had arrived at the landing-place, 
Tamure was not only skilled in magic, but he 
was also a very cautious man ; so whilst they 
were still afloat upon the river, he repeated an in- 
cantation of the kind called " Mata-tawbito," to 
preserve him safe from all arts of sorcery • and he 
repeated other incantations, to ward off spells, to 
protect him from magic, to collect good genii round 



THE TWO SORCERERS. 



275 



him, to keep off evil spirits, and to shield him from 
demons ; when these preparations were all finished, 
they landed, and drew up their canoe on the beach, 
at the landing-place of Kiki. 

As soon as they had landed, the old sorcerer 
called out to them that they were welcome to his 
village, and invited them to come up to it; so they 
went up to the village : and when they reached 
the square in the centre, they seated themselves 
upon the ground ; and some of Kiki's people 
kindled fire in an enchanted oven, and began to 
cook food in it for the strangers. Kiki sat in his 
house, and Tamure on the ground just outside the 
entrance to it, and he there availed himself of 
this opportunity to repeat incantations over the 
threshold of the house, so that Kiki might be en- 
chanted as he stepped over it to come out. When 
the food in the enchanted oven was cooked, they 
pulled off the coverings, and spread it out upon 
clean mats. The old sorcerer now made his ap- 
pearance out of his house, and he invited Tamure 
to come and eat food with him ; but the food 
was all enchanted, and his object in asking Ta- 
mure to eat with him was, that the enchanted 
food might kill him ; therefore Tamure said that his 
young daughter was very hungry, and would eat 
of the food offered to them ; he in the meantime 
kept on repeating incantations of the kind called 



276 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Mata-tawhito, Whakangungu, and Parepare, protec- 
tions against enchanted food, and as she ate she 
also continued to repeat them ; even when she 
stretched out her hand to take a sweet potato, or 
any other food, she dropped the greater part of it 
at her feet, and hid it under her clothes, and then 
only ate a little bit. After she had done, the 
old sorcerer, Kiki, kept waiting for Tamure to 
begin to eat also of the enchanted food, that 
he might soon die. Kiki having gone into his 
house again, Tamure still sat on the ground out- 
side the door, and as he had enchanted the 
threshold of the house, he now repeated incan- 
tations which might render the door enchanted 
also, so that Kiki might be certain not to escape 
when he passed out of it By this time Tamure's 
daughter had quite finished her meal, but neither 
her father nor either of his people had partaken of 
the enchanted food. 

Tamure now ordered his people to launch his 
canoe, and they paddled away, and a little time 
after they had left the village, Kiki became un- 
well ; in the meanwhile, Tamure and his people 
were paddling homewards in all haste, and as 
they passed a village where there were a good 
many people on the river's bank, Tamure stopped, 
and said to them, " If you should see any canoe 
pulling after us, and the people in the canoe ask 



THE TWO SORCERERS. 



277 



you, have you seen a canoe pass up the river, would 
you be good enough to say, f Yes, a canoe has 
passed by here V and then if they ask you, c How 
far has it got?' would you be good enough to say, 
Oh, by this time it has got very far up the 
river?''"' and having thus said to the people of 
that village, Tamure paddled away again in his 
canoe with all haste. 

Some time after Tamure's party had left the 
village of Kiki, the old sorcerer became very ill 
indeed, and his people then knew that this had 
been brought about by the magical arts of Tamure, 
and they sprang into a canoe to follow after him, 
and pulled up the river as hard as they could; and 
when they reached the village where the people 
were on the river's bank, they called out and asked 
them. " How far has the canoe reached, which 
passed up the river ?" and the villagers answered, 
" Oh, that canoe must have got very far up the 
river by this time." The people in the canoe that 
was pursuing Tamure, upon hearing this, returned 
again to their own village, and Kiki died from the 
incantations of Tamure. 

Some of Kiki's descendants are still living — 
one of them, named Mokahi, recently died at Tau- 
ranga-a-Ruru, but Te Maioha is still living on the 
river Waipa. Yes, some of the descendants of 
Kiki, whose shadow withered trees, are still living. 



278 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



He was indeed a great sorcerer: he overcame e very- 
other sorcerer until he met Tamure, but he was 
vanquished by him, and had to bend the knee 
before him. 

Tamure has also some descendants living, 
amongst whom are Mahu and Kiake of the Ngati- 
Mariu tribe ; these men are also skilled in magic : 
if a father skilled in magic died, he left his incan- 
tations to his children ; so that if a man was 
skilled in sorcery, it was known that his children 
would have a good knowledge of the same arts, 
as they were certain to have derived it from their 
parent. 




KOHINEMUTU EOTORN1. 



THE MAGICAL WOODEN HEAD, 

(kon ga puhi a puarata eaua ko tautohito.) 



This head bewitched all persons who approached 
the hill where the fortress in which it was kept 
was situated, so that, from fear of it, no human 
being dared to approach the place, which was thence 
named the Sacred Mount. 

Upon that mount dwelt Puarata and Tautohito 
with their carved head, and its fame went through 
all the country, to the river Tamaki, and to Kai- 
para, and to the tribes of Ngapuhi, to Akau, to 
Waikato, to Kawhia, to Mokau, to Hauraki, and 
to Tauranga ; the exceeding great fame of the 
powers of that carved head spread to every part 
of Aotea-roa, or the northern island of New Zea- 
land ; everywhere reports were heard, that so great 
were its magical powers, none could escape alive 
from them ; and although many warriors and armies 
went to, the Sacred Mount to try to destroy the 
sorcerers to whom the head belonged, and to carry 
it off as a genius for their own district, that its 



280 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



magical powers might be subservient to them, 
they all perished in the attempt. In short, no 
mortal could approach the fortress, and live ; 
even parties of people who were travelling along 
the forest track, to the northwards towards Muri- 
whenua, all died by the magical powers of that 
head ; whether they went in large armed bodies, or 
simply as quiet travellers, their fate was alike — they 
all perished, from its magical influence, somewhere 
about the place where the beaten track passes over 
Waimatuku. 

The deaths of so many persons created a great 
sensation in the country, and, at last, the report of 
these things reached a very powerful sorcerer named 
Hakawau, who, confiding in his magical arts, said 
he was resolved to go and see this magic head, and 
the sorcerers who owned it. So, without delay, he 
called upon all the genii who were subservient to 
him, in order that he might be thrown into an 
enchanted sleep, and see what his fate in this under- 
taking would be ; and in his slumber he saw that 
his genius would triumph in the encounter, for it 
Was so lofty and mighty, that in his dream its head 
reached the heavens, whilst its feet remained upon 
earth. 

Having by his spells ascertained this, he at once 
started on his journey, and the district through 
which he travelled was that of Akau ; and, confiding 



THE MAGICAL WOODEN HEAD. 281 

in his own enchantments, he went fearlessly to try 
whether his arts of sorcery would not prevail over 
the magic head, and enable him to destroy the old 
sorcerer Puarata. 

He took with him one friend, and went along 
the sea-coast towards the Sacred Mount, and passed 
through Whanga-roa, and followed the sea-shore 
to Rangikahu and Kuhawera, and came out upon 
the coast again at Karoroumanui, and arrived 
at Maraetai ; there was a fortified village, the 
people of which endeavoured to detain Hakawau 
and his friend until they rested themselves and 
partook of a little food ; but he said, " We ate food 
on the road, a short distance behind us; we are 
not at all hungry or weary/' So they would not 
remain at Maraetai, but went straight on until 
they reached Putataka, and they crossed the river 
there, and proceeded along the beach to Eukuwai ; 
neither did they stop there, but on they went, 
and at last reached Waitara. 

When they got to Waitara, the friend who ac- 
companied Hakawau began to get alarmed, and 
said, "Now we shall perish here, I fear;" but 
they went safely on, and reached Te Weta ; there 
the heart of Hakawau's friend began to beat again, 
and he said, " I feel sure that we shall perish 
here ; " however they passed by that place too in 



282 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



safety, and on they went, and at length they 
reached the most fatal place of all — Waimatuku. 
Here they smelt the stench of the carcases of the 
numbers who had been previously destroyed ; indeed 
the stench was so bad that it was quite suffocating, 
and they both now said, " This is a fearful place ; 
we fear we shall perish here." However, Haka- 
wau kept on unceasingly working at his enchant- 
ments, and repeating incantations, which might 
ward off the attacks of evil genii, and which might 
collect good genii about them, to protect them from 
the malignant spirits of Puarata, lest these should 
injure them ; thus they passed over Waimatuku, 
looking with horror at the many corpses strewed 
about the beach, and in the dense fern and bushes 
which bordered the path ; and as they pursued their 
onward journey, they expected death every mo- 
ment. 

Nevertheless they died not on the dreadful road, 
but went straight along the path till they came to 
the place where it passes over some low hills, from 
whence they could see the fortress which stood upon 
the Sacred Mount. Here they sat down and 
rested, for the first time since they had commenced 
their journey. They had not yet been seen by the 
watchmen of the fortress. Then Hakawau, with 
his incantations, sent forth many genii, to attack 



THE MAGICAL WOODEN" HEAD. 283 

the spirits who kept watch over the fortress and 
magic head of Puarata. Some of his good genii 
were sent by Hakawau in advance, whilst he 
charged others to follow at some distance. The 
incantations by the power of which these genii were 
sent forth by Hakawau was a Whangai. The genii 
he sent in front were ordered immediately to begin 
the assault. As soon as the spirits who guarded 
the fortress of Puarata saw the others, they all 
issued out to attack them ; the good genii then 
feigned a retreat, the evil ones following them, 
and whilst they were thus engaged in the pur- 
suit, some of the thousands of good genii, who 
had last been sent forth by Hakawau, stormed 
the fortress now left without defenders ; when the 
evil spirits, who had been led away in the pursuit, 
turned to protect the fortress, they found that the 
genii of Hakawau had already got quite close to it, 
and the good genii of Hakawau without trouble 
caught them one after the other, and thus all the 
spirits of the old sorcerer Puarata were utterly 
destroyed. 

When all the evil spirits who had been subject 
to the old sorcerer had been thus destroyed, Haka- 
wau walked straight up towards the fortress of 
this fellow, in whom spirits had dwelt as thick as 
men stow themselves in a canoe, and whom they 



284 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



had used in like manner to carry them about. When 
the watchmen of the fortress, to their great sur- 
prise, saw strangers coming, Puarata hurried to his 
magic head, to call upon it; his supplication was 
after this manner — " Strangers come here ! strangers 
come here ! Two strangers come ! two strangers 
come ! " But it uttered only a low wailing sound ; 
for since the good genii of Hakawau had destroyed 
the spirits who served Puarata, the old sorcerer 
addressed in vain his supplications to the magic 
head, it could no longer raise aloud its powerful 
voice as in former times, but uttered only low moans 
and wails. Could it have cried out with a loud 
voice, straightway Hakawau and his friend would 
both have perished ; for thus it was, when armies 
and travellers had in other times passed the for- 
tress, Puarata addressed supplications to his magic 
head, and when it cried out with a mighty voice, 
the strangers all perished as they heard it. 

Hakawau and his friend had, in the meantime, 
continued to walk straight to the fortress. When 
they drew near it, Hakawau said to his friend, 
" You go directly along the path that leads by 
the gateway into the fortress; as for me, I will 
show my power over the old sorcerer, by climbing 
right over the parapet and palisades:" and when 
they reached the defences of the place, Haka- 



THE MAGICAL WOODEN HEAD. 



285 



wau began to climb over the palisades of the 
gateway. When the people of the place saw this, 
they were much exasperated, and desired him, in 
an angry manner, to pass underneath the gateway, 
along the pathway which was common to all, and 
not to dare to climb over the gateway of Puarata and 
of Tautohito; but Hakawau went quietly on over 
the gateway, without paying the least attention to 
the angry words of those who were calling out to 
him, for he felt quite sure that the two old sorcerers 
were not so skilful in magical arts as he was ; so 
Hakawau persisted in going direct to all the most 
holy places of the fortress, where no person who had 
not been made sacred might enter. 

After Hakawau and his friend had been for a 
short time in the fortress, and had rested them- 
selves a little, the people of the place began to cook 
food for them; they still continued to sit resting 
themselves in the fortress for a long time, and at 
length Hakawau said to his friend, " Let us de- 
part/' Directly his servant heard what his master 
said to him, he jumped up at once and was ready 
enough to be oiF. Then the people of the place 
called out to them not to go immediately, but to 
take some food first ; but Hakawau answered, " Oh, 
we ate only a little while ago ; not far from here 
we took some food/' So Hakawau would not re- 
main longer in the fortress, but departed, and as 



286 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



he started, he smote his hands on the threshold of 
the house in which they had rested, and they had 
hardly got well outside of the fortress before every 
soul in it was dead — not a single one of them was 
left alive. 



THE ART OF NETTING LEARNED BY 
KAHUKURA FROM THE FAIRIES, 

(ko te kokeko mo nga patupaiakehe.) 

Once upon a time, a man of the name of Kahu- 
kura wished to pay a visit to Rangiaowhia, a place 
lying far to the northward, near the country of the 
tribe called Te Rarawa. "Whilst he lived at his own 
village, he was continually haunted by a desire to 
visit that place. At length he started on his 
journey, and reached Rangiaowhia, and as he was 
on his road, he passed a place where some people 
had been cleaning mackerel, and he saw the inside 
of the fish lying all about the sand on the sea- 
shore : surprised at this, he looked about at the 
marks, and said to himself, " Oh, this must have 
been done by some of the people of the district/' 
But when he came to look a little more narrowly 
at the footmarks, he saw that the people who had 
been fishing had made them in the night-time, not 
that morning, nor in the day ; and he said to 
himself, " These are no mortals who have been 
fishing here — spirits must have done this ; had 



288 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



they been men, some of the reeds and grass which 
they sat on in their canoe would have been lying 
about/' He felt quite sure from several circum- 
stances, that spirits or fairies had been there ; and 
after observing everything well, he returned to the 
house where he was stopping. He, however, held 
fast in his heart what he had seen, as something 
very striking to tell all his friends in every direc- 
tion, and as likely to be the means of gaining 
knowledge which might enable him to find out 
something new. 

So that night he returned to the place w T here 
he had observed all these things, and just as 
he reached the spot, back had come the fairies too, 
to haul their net for mackerel ; and some of them 
were shouting out, " The net here ! the net here ! " 
Then a canoe paddled off to fetch the other in 
which the net was laid, and as they dropped the 
net into the water, they began to cry out, " Drop 
the net in the sea at Rangiaowhia, and haul it 
at Mamaku/' These words were sung out by 
the fairies, as an encouragement in their work, and 
from the joy of their hearts at their sport in 
fishing. 

As the fairies were dragging the net to the shore, 
Kahukura managed to mix amongst them, and 
hauled away at the rope ; he happened to be a 
very fair man, so that his skin was almost as 



NET MAKING ACQUIRED FROM THE FAIRIES. 289 



white as that of these fairies, and from that cause 
he was not observed by them. As the net came 
close in to the shore, the fairies began to cheer 
and shout, " Go out into the sea some of you, in 
front of the rocks, lest the nets should be en- 
tangled in Tawatawauia a Teweteweuia/' for that 
was the name of a rugged rock standing out from 
the sandy shore ; the main body of the fairies kept 
hauling at the net, and Kahukura pulled away in 
the midst of them. 

When the first fish reached the shore, thrown up 
in the ripples driven before the net as they hauled 
it in, the fairies had not yet remarked Kahukura, 
for he was almost as fair as they were. It was 
just at the very first peep of dawn that the fish 
were all landed, and the fairies ran hastily to pick 
them up from the sand, and to haul the net up on 
the beach. They did not act with their fish as men 
do, dividing them into separate loads for each, but 
every one took up what fish he liked, and ran a 
twig through their gills, and as they strung the 
fish, they continued calling out, " Make haste, run 
here, all of you, and finish the work before the sun 
rises/' 

Kahukura kept on stringing his fish with the 
rest of them. He had only a very short string, 
and, making a slip-knot at the end of it, when 

o 



290 



POLYNESIAN" MYTHOLOGY. 



he had covered the string with fish, he lifted them 
up, but had hardly raised them from the ground 
when the slip-knot gave way from the weight 
of the fish, and off they fell ; then some of the 
fairies ran good-naturedly to help him to string 
his fish again, and one of them tied the knot at 
the end of the string for him, but the fairy had 
hardly gone after knotting it, before Kahukura 
had unfastened it, and again tied a slip-knot at 
the end ; then he began stringing his fish again, 
and when he had got a great many on, up he 
lifted them, and off they slipped as before. 
This trick he repeated several times, and delayed 
the fairies in their work by getting them to knot 
his string for him, and put his fish on it. At 
last full daylight broke, so that there was light 
enough to distinguish a man's face, and the fairies 
saw that Kahukura was a man ; then they dis- 
persed in confusion, leaving their fish and their 
net, and abandoning their canoes, which were no- 
thing but stems of the flax. In a moment the 
fairies started for their own abodes ; in their 
hurry, as has just been said, they abandoned then- 
net, which was made of rushes ; and off the good 
people fled as fast as they could go. Now was 
first discovered the stitch for netting a net, for they 
left theirs with Kahukura, and it became a pat- 



NET MAKING ACQUIRED FROM THE FAIRIES. 291 

tern for him. He thus taught his children to 
make nets, and by them the Maori race were 
made acquainted with that art, which they have 
now known from very remote times. 



TE KANAWA'S ADVENTURE WITH A 
TROOP OF FAIRIES. 



Te Kanawa, a chief of Waikato, was the man who 
fell in with a troop of fairies upon the top of Puke- 
more, a high hill in the Waikato district. 

This chief happened one day to go out to catch 
kiwis with his dogs, and when night came on he 
found himself right at the top of Puke-more. So 
his party made a fire to give them light, for it was 
very dark. They had chosen a tree to sleep under — 
a very large tree, the only one fit for their purpose 
that they could find ; in fact, it was a very conve- 
nient sleeping-place, for the tree had immense 
roots, sticking up high above the ground : they 
slept between these roots, and made the fire be- 
yond them. 

As soon as it was dark they heard loud voices, 
like the voices of people coming that way ; there 
were the voices of men, of women, and of children, 
as if a very large party of people were coming 
along. They looked for a long time, but could see 
nothing ; till at last Te Kanawa knew the noise must 
proceed from fairies. His people were all dreadfully 



TE KANAWA AND THE FAIRIES. 293 

frightened, and would have run away if they could ; 
but where could they run to ? for they were in the 
midst of a forest, on the top of a lonely mountain, 
and it was dark night. 

For a long time the voices grew louder and more 
distinct as the fairies drew nearer and nearer, until 
they came quite close to the fire ; Te Kanawa 
and his party were half dead with fright. At last 
the fairies approached to look at Te Kanawa, who 
was a very handsome fellow. To do this, they 
kept peeping slily over the large roots of the tree 
under which the hunters were lying, and kept con- 
stantly looking at Te Kanawa, whilst his compa- 
nions were quite insensible from fear. Whenever 
the fire blazed up brightly, off went the fairies and 
hid themselves, peeping out from behind stumps 
and trees ; and when it burnt low, back they came 
close to it, merrily singing as they moved — 

" Here you come climbing over Mount Tirangi 
To visit the handsome chief of ISgapuhh 
Whom we have done with." * 

A sudden thought struck Te Kanawa, that he 
might induce them to go away if he gave them 
all the jewels he had about him ; so he took off 
a beautiful little figure, carved in green jasper, 

* Te Wherowhero did not remember the whole song, but that 
this was the concluding verse ; it was probably in allusion to their 
coming to peep at Te Kanawa. 



294} POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY, 

which he wore as a neck ornament, and a precious 
carved jasper ear-drop from his ear. Ah, Te Kanawa 
was only trying to amuse and please them to save 
his life, but all the time he was nearly frightened 
to death. However, the fairies did not rush on 
the men to attack them, but only came quite close 
to look at them. As soon as Te Kanawa had 
taken off his neck ornament, and pulled out his 
jasper ear-ring, and his other ear-ring, made of a 
tooth of the tiger-shark, he spread them out before 
the fairies, and offered them to the multitude 
who were sitting all round about the place; and 
thinking it better the fairies should not touch him, 
he took a stick, and fixing it into the ground, 
hung his neck ornament and ear-rings upon it. 

As soon as the fairies had ended their song, they 
took the shadows of the ear-rings, and handed them 
about from one to the other, until they had passed 
through the whole party, which then suddenly dis- 
appeared, and nothing more was seen of them. 

The fairies carried off with them the shadows of 
all the jewels of Te Kanawa, but they left behind 
them his jasper neck ornament and his ear-rings, 
so that he took them back again, the hearts of the 
fairies being quite contented at getting the shadows 
alone ; they saw, also, that Te Kanawa was an 
honest, well-dispositioned fellow. However, the 
next morning, as soon as it was light, he got down 



TE KANAWA AND THE FAIRIES. 295 

the mountain as fast as he could without stopping 
to hunt longer for kiwis. 

The fairies are a very numerous people ; merry, 
cheerful, and always singing, like the cricket. Their 
appearance is that of human beings, nearly resem- 
bling a European's ; their hair being very fair, and 
so is their skin. They are very different from the 
Maories, and do not resemble them at all. 

Te Kanawa had died before any Europeans ar- 
rived in New Zealand. 



296 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



THE LOYES OF TAKARANGI AND 
RAU-MAHORA, 



There was, several generations since, a chief of 
the Taranaki tribe, named Rangirarunga. His pa 
was called Whakarewa ; it was a large pa, re- 
nowned for the strength of its fortifications. This 
chief had a very beautiful daughter, whose name 
was Rau-mahora ; she was so celebrated for her 
beauty that the fame of it had reached all parts of 
these islands, and had, therefore, come to the ears 
of Te Rangi-apitirua, a chief of the Ngati-Awa 
tribes, to whom belonged the pa of Puke-ariki, on 
the hill where the Governor's house stood in New 
Plymouth. This chief had a son named Taka- 
rangi ; he was the hero of his tribe. He, too, 
naturally heard of the beauty of Rau-mahora ; and 
it may be that his heart sometimes dwelt long on 
the thoughts of such great loveliness. 

Now in those days long past, there arose a 
war between the tribes of Te Rangi-apitirua and 
of the father of Rau-mahora ; and the army of the 




NEW ZEALAND PA. 



TAKARANGI AND R ATJ-M AH OR A. 297 

Ngati-Awa tribes marched to Taranaki, to attack 
the pa of Rangirarunga, and the army invested 
that fortress, and sat before it night and day, yet 
they could not take it ; they continued nevertheless 
constantly to make assaults upon it, and to attack 
the garrison of the fortress, so that its inhabitants 
became worn out from want of provisions and 
water, and many of them were near dying. 

At last the old chief of the pa, Rangirarunga, 
overcome by thirst, stood on the top of the de- 
fences of the pa, and cried out to the men of the 
enemy's army, " I pray you to give me one drop 
of water." Some of his enemies, pitying the aged 
man, said, "Yes;" and one ran with a calabash 
to give him water. But the majority being more 
hard-hearted, were angry at this, and broke the 
calabash in his hands, so that not a drop of water 
reached the poor old man ; and this was done se- 
veral times, whilst his enemies continued disputing 
amongst themselves. 

The old chief still stood on the top of the 
earthen wall of the fortress, and he saw the leader 
of the hostile force, with the symbols of his 
rank fastened on his head; he wore a long white 
comb, made from the bone of a whale, and a 
plume of the long downy feathers of the white 
heron, the emblems of his chieftainship. Then was 
heard by all, the voice of the aged man as he 

o 3 



298 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



shouted to him from the top of the wall, "Who 
art thou?" And the other cried out to him, " Lo, 
he who stands here before you is Takarangi." 
And the aged chief of the pa called down to him, 
"Young warrior, art thou able to still the wrath- 
ful surge which foams on the hidden rocks of the 
shoal of O-rongo-mai-ta-kupe V meaning, " Hast 
thou, although a chief, power to calm the wrath of 
these fierce men?" Then proudly replied to him 
the young chief, "The wrathful surge shall be 
stilled ; this arm of mine is one which no dog 
dares to bite," meaning that no plebeian hand 
dared touch his arm, made sacred by his deeds and 
rank, or to dispute his will. But wLat Takarangi 
was really thinking in his heart was, " That dying 
old man is the father of Rau-mahora, of that so 
lovely maid. Ah, how I should grieve if one so 
young and innocent should die tormented with 
the want of water." Then he arose, and slowly 
went to bring water for that aged man, and 
for his youthful daughter ; and he filled a cala- 
bash, dipping it up from the cool spring which 
gushes up from the earth, and is named Fount 
Oringi. ISTo word was spoken, or movement made, 
by the crowd of fierce and angry men, but all, rest- 
ing upon their arms, looked on in wonder and in 
silence. Calm lay the sea, that was before so 
troubled, all timid and respectful in the lowly 



TAKARANGI AND RATJ-MAHORA. 299 



hero's presence ; and the water was taken by 
Takarangi, and by him was held up to the aged 
chief; then was heard by all, the voice of Taka- 
rangi, as he cried aloud to him, " There : — said I 
not to you, 1 No dog would dare to bite this hand of 
mine V Behold the water for you — for you and for 
that young girl/' Then they drank, both of them, 
and Takarangi gazed eagerly at the young girl, 
and she too looked eagerly at Takarangi ; long 
time gazed they, each one at the other ; and as 
the warriors of the army of Takarangi looked on, 
lo, he had climbed up and was sitting at the young 
maiden's side ; and they said amongst themselves, 
" comrades, our lord Takarangi loves war, but 
one would think he likes Eau-mahora almost as 
well." 

At last a sudden thought struck the heart of the 
aged chief, of the father of Rau-mahora; so he said 
to his daughter, " my child, would it be pleasing 
to you to have this young chief for a husband V 
and the young girl said, " I like him." Then the 
old man consented that his daughter should be 
given as a bride to Takarangi, and he took her as 
his wife. Thence was that war brought to an 
end, and the army of Takarangi dispersed, and 
they returned each man to his own village, and 
they came back no more to make war against the 



300 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



tribes of Taranaki — for ever were ended their wars 
against them. 

And the descendants of Rau-mahora dwell here 
in Wellington. They are Te Puni, and all his 
children, and his relatives. For Takarangi and 
Rau-mahora had a daughter named Rongouaroa, 
who was married to Te Whiti ; and they had a 
son named Aniwaniwa, who married Tawhirikura ; 
and they had a son named Rerewha-i-te-rangi, and 
he married Puku, who was the mother of Te Puni. 



STRATAGEM OF PUHIHUIA'S ELOPEMENT 
WITH TE PONGA. 



There was formerly a large fortified town upon 
Mount Eden; its defences were massive and strong, 
and a great number of persons inhabited the town. 
In the days of olden time a war was commenced 
by the tribes of Awhitu and of Waikato, against the 
people who inhabited the town at Mount Eden or 
Maunga-whau. 

There they engaged in a fierce war : one side 
first persisted in their efforts for victory, until they 
were successful in beating the other party ; then the 
other side in their turn succeeded in resisting their 
enemies, and gained a victory in their turn ; thus 
the tribes of Waikato did not succeed in destroy- 
ing their enemies as they desired. 

After this the people of Waikato thought, for a 
long time, "Well, what had we better do now 
to destroy these enemies of ours?" And seeing no 
way to accomplish this, they determined to make 



302 POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



peace with them ; so, at last, they arranged a peace, 
and it appeared to he a sure one. 

When this peace had been made, Te Ponga, a 
chief from Awhitu, and one of the fiercest ene- 
mies of the people of that town, went, attended by 
a large company, to Maunga-whau, and whilst he 
was yet a long way off, he and his party were seen 
coming along by the people of the fortified town, 
and they ran to the gates of the fortress, calling 
out, " Welcome, oh, welcome, strangers from afar I " 
and they waved their garments to them; and the 
strangers, encouraged by these cries, came straight 
on to the town until they reached it, and then 
walked direct to the large court-yard in front of 
the house of the chief of the tcwn, and there they 
all seated themselves. 

The inhabitants being all now assembled in 
the town, as well as the strangers, the chiefs of 
each party stood up and made speeches, and when 
they had concluded this part of the ceremony, the 
women lighted fires to cook food for the strangers, 
and when the ovens were heated, they put the 
food in and covered them up. In a very short 
time the food was all cooked, when they opened 
the ovens, placed the food in baskets, and ranged 
it in a long pile before the visitors ; then, sepa- 
rating it into shares, one of their chiefs called 
aloud the name of each of the visitors to whom a 



STRATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 303 

share was intended, and when this allotment was 
completed they fell to at the feast. 

The strangers, however, ate very slowly, know- 
ing they had better take but little food, in order 
not to surfeit themselves, and so that their waists 
might be slim when they stood up in the ranks of 
the dancers, and that they might look as slight as 
if their waists were almost severed in two ; and as 
the strangers sat they kept on thinking, " When 
will night come and the dance begin?" and the 
thoughts of the others were of the same kind. 

As soon as it began to get dark, the inhabitants 
of the village rapidly assembled, and when they had 
all collected in the court-yard of the house, which 
was occupied by the strangers, they stood up for 
the dance, and rank after rank of dancers was 
duly ranged in order, until at length all was in 
readiness. 

Then the dancers began, and whilst they sprang 
nimbly about, Puhihuia, the young daughter of the 
chief of the village, stood watching a good oppor- 
tunity to bound forward before the assembly, and 
make the gestures usual with dancers, since she 
knew that she could not dance so well, or so 
becomingly, if she pressed on before the mea- 
sure was completed, but that when the beating 
time by the assembly with their feet and hands, 
and the deep voices of the men, were all in exact 



304 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



unison, was the fitting moment for her to bound 
forward into the dance, with the becoming ges- 
tures. 

Then, just as they were all beating time toge- 
ther, Puhihuia perceived the proper moment had 
come, and forth she sprang before the assembled 
dancers ; first she bends her head with many ges- 
tures towards the people upon the one side, and 
then towards those upon the other, as she per- 
formed her part beautifully; her full orbed eyes 
seemed clear and brilliant as the full moon rising 
in the horizon, and whilst the strangers looked at 
the young girl, they all were quite overpowered with 
her beauty ; and Te Ponga, their young chief, felt 
his heart grow wild with emotion, when he saw so 
much loveliness before him. In the meanwhile the 
people of the village went on dancing, until all the 
evolutions of the dance were duly completed, when 
they paused. 

Then up sprang the strangers to dance in their 
turn, and they duly ranged themselves in order, 
rank behind rank of the dancers, and began with 
their hands to beat time, and whilst they thus 
gave the time of the measure, the young chief, 
Te Ponga, stood peeping over them and waiting a 
good opportunity for him to spring forward, and in 
his turn make gestures ; at last forth he bounded ; 
then he, too, bent his head with many gestures, 



STRATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 305 

first upon the one side and then upon the other ; 
indeed, he performed beautifully! The people of 
the village were so surprised at his agility and 
grace, that they could do nothing but admire him, 
and as for the young girl Puhihuia, her heart con- 
ceived a warm passion for Te Ponga. 

At length the dance concluded, and all dis- 
persed, each to the place where he was to rest ; 
then, overcome with weariness, they all reclined 
in slumber, except Te Ponga, who lay tossing from 
side to side, unable to sleep, from his great love 
for the maiden, and devising scheme after scheme 
by which he might have an opportunity of con- 
versing alone with her. At last he formed a 
project, or rather it originated in the suggestions 
of his private slave, who said to his master, " Sir, 
I have found out a plan by which you may ac- 
complish your wishes ; listen to me whilst I de- 
tail it to you. To-morrow evening, just at night- 
fall, as you sit in the court-yard of the chief of the 
village, feign to be very thirsty, and call to me to 
bring you a draught of water ; on my part, I 
will take care to be at a distance from the place, 
but do you continue to shout loudly and angrily to 
me, 1 Sirrah, I want water, fetch me some ; call 
loudly, so that the father of the young girl may 
hear ; then he will probably say to his daughter, 
' My child, my child, why do you let our guest call 



306 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



in that way for water, without running to fetch 
some for him V Then, when the young girl, in obe- 
dience to her father's orders, runs down the hill to 
fetch water from the fountain for you, do you follow 
her to the spring; there you can uninterruptedly 
converse together ; but when you rise to follow 
the young girl, in order to prevent them from sus- 
pecting your intentions, do you pretend to be in a 
great passion with me, and speak thus — 1 Where 's 
that deaf slave of mine? Ill go and find the fellow. 
Ah ! you will not hear when you do not like, but 
111 break your head for you, my fine fellow.'" 

Thus the slave advised his master, and they 
arranged fully the plan of their proceedings ; the 
next day Te Ponga went to visit the chief of 
the village, and sat in his house watching the 
young girl, and before long evening closed in, and 
they retired to rest, and some time afterwards Te 
Ponga, pretending to be thirsty, called out loudly 
to this slave, " Halloa ! sir, fetch me some water 
but not a word did the slave answer him ; and 
Te Ponga continued to call out to him louder 
and louder, until at last he seemed to become 
weary of shouting. When the chief of the village 
heard him calling out in this way for water, he at 
length said to his young daughter, " My child, run 
and fetch some water for our guest ; why do you 
allow him to go on calling for water in that way, 



STEATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 307 

■without fetching some for him?" Then the maiden 
arose, and, taking a calabash, went off to fetch 
water ; and no sooner did Te Ponga see her start- 
ing off than he too arose, and went out of the 
house, feigning by his voice and words to be very- 
angry with his slave, so that all might think he 
was going to give him a beating ; but as soon as 
he was out of the house, he went straight off after 
the young girl ; he did not, indeed, well know the 
path which led to the fountain, but led by the voice 
of the maiden, who tripped along the path singing 
blithely and merrily as she went, Te Ponga followed 
the guidance of her tones. 

When the maiden arrived at the brink of the 
fountain and was about to dip her calabash into it, 
she heard some one behind her, and, turning sud- 
denly round, ah! there stood a man close behind 
her; yes, there was Te Ponga himself. She stood 
quite astonished for some time, and at length asked, 
" What can have brought you here?" He answered, 
" I came here for a draught of water." But the girl 
replied, " Ha, indeed ! Did not I come here to draw 
water for you ? Why, then, did you come ? Could 
not you have remained at my father's house until I 
brought the water for you V Then Te Ponga an- 
swered, " You are the water that I thirsted for." 
And as the maiden listened to his words, she 
thought within herself, " He, then, has fallen in love 



308 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



with me \" and she sat down, and he placed himself 
by her side, and they conversed together, and to 
each of them the words of the other seemed most 
pleasant and engaging. "Why need more be said ? 
Before they separated they arranged a time when 
they might escape together, and then each of them 
returned to the village to wait for the occasion they 
had agreed upon. 

When the appointed time had arrived, he desired 
some chosen men of his followers to go to the land- 
ing-place on Manuka harbour, where the canoes 
were all hauled on shore, there to wait for him ; 
and Puhihuia and he directed them when they got 
there to prepare one canoe in which he and all his 
followers might escape ; he desired that this canoe 
should be launched and kept afloat in the water 
with every paddle in its place, so that the moment 
they embarked it might put off from the shore ; he 
farther directed them to go round every one of the 
other canoes, to cut the lashings which made the 
top sides fast to the hulls, and to pull out all 
the plugs, so that those following them might be 
checked and thrown into confusion at finding they 
had no canoes in which to continue the pursuit. 
Those of his people to whom Te Ponga gave these 
orders immediately departed, and did exactly as 
their chief had directed them. 

The next morning Te Ponga having told his host 



STEATAGEM OF TE PONGA's ELOPEMENT. 309 

that he must return to his own country, all the 
people of the place assembled to bid him farewell ; 
and when they had all collected, the chief of the 
fortress stood up, and, after a suitable speech, pre- 
sented his jade mere to Te Ponga as a parting gift, 
which might establish and make sure the peace 
which they had concluded. Te Ponga in his turn 
presented with the same ceremonies his jade mere 
to the chief of the fortress ; and when all the rites 
observed at a formal parting were completed, Te 
Ponga and his followers arose, and went upon their 
way: then the people of the place all arose too, and 
accompanied them to the gates of the fortress to 
bid them farewell ; and as the strangers quitted the 
gates, the people of the place cried aloud after them, 
" Depart in peace ! depart in peace ! May you re- 
turn in safety to your homes ! " 

Just before the strangers had started, Puhihuia 
and some of the young girls of the village stole a 
little way along the road, so as to accompany the 
strangers some way on their path ; and when they 
joined them, the girls stepped proudly along by the 
side of the band of strange warriors, laughing 
and joking with them ; at last they got some 
distance from the village, and Puhihuia's father, 
the chief of the place, seeing his daughter was 
going so far, called out, " Children, children, come 
back here!" Then the other girls stopped and be- 



310 



POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



gan to return towards the village, but as to Puhi- 
huia, her heart beat but to the one thought of 
escaping with her beloved Te Ponga. So she be- 
gan to run. She drew near to some large scoria 
rocks, and glided behind them, and, when thus 
hidden from the view of those in the village, she 
redoubled her speed ; well done, well done, young 
girl ! She runs so fast that her body bends low as 
she speeds forward. When Te Ponga saw Puhi- 
huia running in this hurried manner, he called aloud 
to his men, " What is the meaning of this ? let us 
be off as fast as we can too. Then began a swift 
flight, indeed, of Te Ponga and his followers, and of 
the young girl ; rapidly they flew, like a feather 
drifting before the gale, or as runs the waka which 
has broken loose from a fowler's snare. 

When the people of the village saw that their 
young chieftainess was gone, there was a wild rush- 
ing to and fro in the village for weapons, and 
whilst they thus lost their time, Te Ponga and his 
followers, and the young girl, went unmolestedly 
upon their way ; and when the people of the fortress 
at last came out ready for the pursuit, Te Ponga 
and his followers, and Puhihuia, had got far enough 
away, and before their pursuers had gained any 
distance from the fortress, Te Ponga and his people 
had almost reached the landing place at Manuka 
harbour, and by the time the pursuing party had 



STRATAGEM OF TE PONGA'S ELOPEMENT. 311 



arrived near the landing-place, they had embarked 
in their canoe, had grasped their paddles, and being 
all ready, they dashed their paddles into the water, 
and shot away, swift as a dart from a string, whilst 
they felt the sides of the canoe shake from the force 
with which they drove it through the water. 

When the pursuers saw that the canoe had 
dashed off into Manuka harbour, they laid hold of 
another canoe, and began to haul it down towards 
the water, but as the lashings of the top sides were 
cut, what was the use of their trying to haul it to 
the sea ? they dragged nothing but the top sides — 
there lay the bottom of the canoe unmoved. Pur- 
suit was impossible ; the party that had come to 
make peace escaped, and returned uninjured and 
joyful to their own country, and went cheerfully 
upon their way, carrying off with them the young 
chieftainess from their enemies, who could only stand 
like fools upon the shore, stamping with rage and 
threatening them in vain. 



x i a I 



APPENDIX. 



ON THE NATIVE SONGS OF NEW ZEALAND, 

AND A COMPARISON OP THE INTERVALS DISCEKNIBLE IN THEM WITH 
THE INTEKVALS STATED TO HAVE BEEN PERFORMED BY THE AN- 
CIENT GREEKS IN SOME OF THEIR DIVISIONS OF THE MUSICAL 
SCALE, CALLED yivos hccgpovtpcov, OR BY OTHERS ko [/.ovist. 

All nations, perhaps, without excepting any, have some 
method of expressing the more energetic emotions beyond 
mere speaking or acting ; a sense of joy or pain, naturally 
calling forth ejaculations and vociferations exceeding in 
limit the tone of voice used in ordinary discourse. The cry 
of war, the encouraging to battle, the shout of victory, or 
the lament of the vanquished, the wailing over a deceased 
friend, grief at the departure of a lover, each in its turn 
has prompted or suggested some modification of sound be- 
yond the ordinary range of mere tame every- day discourse ; 
and this modification of voice we may call, in a wide sense, 
natural music. 

But as the highest art is to conceal the art,* and to 
imitate nature, that mighty nation, the Greeks, with an 
art almost peculiarly their own, having observed these ex- 
pressions of sentiment, thence deduced certain lawsf of 
interval, by which, while they kept within the limits of 



* Cicero. 



f Cicero, Orat. 

P 



314 



APPENDIX. 



art, they took care not to transgress those of nature, but 
judiciously to adopt, and as nearly as possible to define, 
with mathematical exactness, those intervals which the un- 
cultured only approach by the irregular modulation of 
natural impulses ; so their art was the schooling of nature 
b} T the more exact observance of her laws, and by training 
nature by perfect art, they made art like nature, and cor- 
rected nature by art, as the sculptor or painter gives the 
classic embodiment or personification, not the common- 
place and often defective representation of an object. 

This I opine to have been the real nature of the enhar- 
monic scale of the Greeks ; and hence I conceive the reason 
of the remnant of that scale being found among most of 
those nations who have been left to the impulses of a 
"nature-taught" song rather than been cramped by the 
trammels of a conventional system — the result of educa- 
tion and civilisation. 

It may not be amiss, before going further into this 
analogy of nature, and of an art reciprocally reflecting 
back that nature, to endeavour to give the uninitiated an 
idea of what is meant by the " enharmonic genus" of the 
Greeks. 

I must first remark that while we have, properly speak- 
ing, only one scale of musical notes and two genera, the 
Greeks had three scales and five genera. For we have 
only the diatonic scale, but by a certain introduction of one 
or more semitones, we make what is called the chromatic. 

Whereas, the Greeks had three scales, comprising five 
genera, or, according to some, nine* all differing not only, 
as ours do, in the position of intervals, but in the intervals 
themselves; this difference of interval (rather than posi- 

* Ptolomaeus the Magian, Mr. "Vincent's paper in "Notices et 
Extraits des MSS./' torn. xvi. Paris. 



APPENDIX. 



315 



tion of interval) gave rise to the expression " genera of a 
system" and depended on the distribution of two interme- 
diate sounds in the tetrachord or 4th. 

The principal scales and genera were three ; the dia- 
tonic, the chromatic, and the enharmonic. The diatonic 
(genus) consisted of a limma or minor half tone, a major 
tone, and a major tone ascending, this had another modi- 
fication, by which, while it retained the same semitone, it 
contracted the next tone, and extended the last; the latter 
was called soft diatonic. 

The chromatic, which consisted of semitone, semitone, 
one tone and a half interval, or nearly our minor third, 
was called tonaaeon, and had two modifications, one 
called hemiolion, and the other malakon ; these shades or 
modifications seem of later invention, and soon to have 
fallen into disuse. 

The enharmonic consisted of a quarter tone, a quarter 
tone and an interval of two tones, an interval somewhat 
greater than our third major. 

Wallis says that we have no idea of these intervals at 
the present day, as in any way connected with a scale, since 
they amount to little more than an imperfect elevation or 
depression of the voice within the limits of what we call a 
sound or harmonic note ; though a certain use is made of 
the term enharmonic, and the existence of the interval is 
admitted in the higher researches on music, and said to be 
apparent in the so-called tierce wolf of the organ, in un- 
tempered instruments, and in the systems of equal tem- 
perament. 

Writers of the present day greatly differ as to the ex- 
istence or use of these xe°«»» or shades of distinction, some 
wishing to modify them by a modern application of the 
term, amounting to those shades, "nuances" or slurs, 

p 2 



316 



APPENDIX. 



which the best vocalists or performers are sometimes heard 
to introduce;* others againf declaring them to be in prac- 
tice impossible ; and all for the most part alleging that, 
whatever might have been the case in former times, no 
such modifications do exist in practice at the present day. 

Now, with regard to the existence of them in ancient 
times, innumerable authorities might be quoted ; but, not to 
exceed a reasonable limit, I shall only cite one or two tes- 
timonies, and shall confine myself to those referring to 
the enharmonic. * ' n ik- t. 

Vitruvius (lib. v. c. 5) says : " Diatoni vero quod naturalis 
est facilior est intervallorum distantia" ot" the enharmonic 
he says: 11 Est autem harmonics modulatio ab arte con- 
cepta, et ea re cantio ejus maxime gravem, et egregiam habet 
auctoriiatem." The graveness and seriousness are given 
as the striking characteristics of this genus. 

We may here incidentally remark, that though he says, 
" ab arte concepta," it does not prove that it might not 
have been art imitating nature ; and more, it is not impos- 
sible that these, at present so-called uncivilised and savage 
nations, might have retained this character of song from a 
period of the highest state of civilisation, at an epoch of 
great antiquity. 

Plutarch (u^l Movo-wi) remarks, that the most beautiful 
of the musical genera is the enharmonic, on account of its 
grave and solemn character, and that it was formerly 
most in esteem. 

Aristides Quintilian tells us it was the most difficult of 
all, and required a most excellent ear. 

Aristoxenus observes that it was so difficult that no one 
could sing more than two dieses consecutively, and yet the 

>a ™* e e'ioioi9fft J&dS luxe c ^dnjUm\^wtaibwt $%$wSo%5» 
* Smith. f Burney. 



APPENDIX. 



317 



perceptions of a Greek audience were fully awake to, and 
their judgment could appreciate, a want of exactness in 
execution ; for Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, he him- 
self has been in the most crowded theatre, where, if a 
singer or citharoedist mistook the smallest interval (pre- 
sumed to be the enharmonic diesis), he was hissed off the 
stage. 

Isaac Vossius,* from a multitude of authorities, has 
established, that transitions were made by ancient singers 
and performers, from the diatonic to the chromatic and 
enharmonic, with the greatest facility ; and he adds, " which, 
because the modems cannot do, they even positively and seri- 
ously assert that the ancients could not sing the enharmonic." 
Whereas, continues he, " not only did they sing it, but ac- 
companied it with instruments" 

So Plutarch (FTe^ Mouc-wSj?), who adds a remark, the 
purport of which is, such persons (who affirm that the 
ancients could not accompany the enharmonic) forget that 
if they can accompany greater intervals which were com- 
posed of less, there can be no reason why the scale of an 
instrument might not be so adjusted as to accompany the 
less intervals which compose those greater. 

The doubt of the possibility of using the enharmonic as 
a scale is not confined to our own day, for Plutarch, as we 
have seen (and in other places also), speaks of the decline 
of it ; and Athenaeus speaks of certain Greeks who, from 
time to time, retired by themselves to keep up the recol- 
lection of the good old music, since the art had become so 
corrupted. 

In Plutarch's time (de Musica) he bitterly complains 
that certain people " affirmed the enharmonic diesis to be 
absolutely undistinguishable, and that, therefore, it had no 



* " De poematum Cantu." 



318 



APPENDIX, 



place in the scales of nature, and that those who attempted 
to prove it were mere triflers (7r"£p?wae*j*Eva»).* 

He then makes the remark about the possibility of ac- 
companying the enharmonic intervals with instruments, 
and adds, " and these very people who talk about the en- 
harmonic having no foundation in nature, have an extra- 
ordinary attachment to dissonances and irrational intervals" 
(itegiTTx . . . v ccXoycc), which have no existence in the real 
science of the proportions of natural intervals, and may be 
compared to certain irregular tenuities or awkward excres- 
cences on what should be a beautiful tree or other object. 
For whatever reason, it appears it was wholly laid aside in 
Plutarch's time, which he attributes to the dulness of the 
ears of those of his day. 

Wallis supposes the genera of the chromatic and enhar- 
monic to have fallen into disuse for many ages ; Scaliger, 
not till Domitian : the enharmonic, because of the extreme 
difficulty ; the chromatic, on account of its softness and 
effeminacy. Dr. Wallis adds, " modern music never 
affected to appreciate such subtilty and delicate nicety, for 
neither voice could execute, nor ear easily distinguish so 
minute differences, at least so we suppose now-a-days." 

Dr. Burney (i. 433), in his History of Music, from vari- 
ous authorities, concludes that this genus (the close enhar- 
monic) was almost exclusively in use before Aristoxenus 
(about the time of Alexander the Great), and we gather 
from Aristoxenus that there were exercises in it for prac- 
tice, and this observation is corroborated in the " Notices 
et Extraits des MSS." t. xvi., in a most elaborate and clever 

* That the enharmonic has no foundation in nature is false, for 
what tree tapers " per saltum ?" — what river flows in heaps 1 — this 
gradation is nature's life-stream ; the other scales may be compared 
to the proportional parts, the enharmonic to the continuous proces- 
sion. 



APPENDIX. 



319 



paper, by Mr. Vincent, from certain MSS. in the King of 
France's library. 

Dr. Burney, in common with most other modern writers 
on the subject, says, " the intervals of the close enhar- 



appear wholly strange and unmanageable," and hence it 
has been concluded that the enharmonic was impossible in 



Dr. Burney, however, one day received a letter from his 
friend Dr. Russell, regarding the " state of music in Ara- 
bia, and to the Doctor's utter astonishment, he learnt from 
that letter that the Arabian scale of music was divided into 
quarter tones ; and that an octave, which, upon our keyed 
instruments is only divided into 12 semitones, in the Ara- 
bian scale contained %±,for all of which they had particular 
denominations." 

This latter observation would seem to tally very well 
with what Mr. Lane* says of the canoon Qm*>) of the 
present Arabs, which, he says, has 24 treble notes. Only, 
that he adds, each note has three strings to it, which (later, 
as we shall see) he affirms to have been thirds of tones. If 
so, the system is a shade of the chromatic ; and if Mr. 
Lane is right (and he gives a drawing of the instrument), 
Dr. Russell must err, or speak of another instrument. I 
should be inclined to give preference to Lane, because of 
the great pains he has taken in describing the instrument. 

Mr. Lay Tradescant,f speaking of the Chinese intervals, 



monic tetrachord 




practice. 



* Lane's " Modem Egypt." 

f Lay Tradescant's " Chinese as they are." 



320 



APPENDIX. 



says, that "it is impossible to obtain the intervals of their 
scale on our keyed instruments, but they may be perfectly 
effected on the violin." 

Mr. Vincent* gives a most scientific description of an 
elaborate instrument made at Paris, exhibited at the In- 
stitut, on which the quarter tones were most correctly 
illustrated, and observes, that a much less interval than 
the quarter-tone, perhaps eight or ten times less, is dis- 
cernible, as proved by a M. Delezenne,f 1827; and our 
own ears attest that universally in the modulations of the 
voice of the so-called savage tribes, and in the refined and 
anomalously-studied Chinese, there are intervals which do 
not correspond to any notes on our keyed instruments, and 
which to an untrained ear appear almost monotonous. 

There is another matter with which incidentally we have 
to do, namely, an apparent difference of opinion between 
ancient authors themselves about the enharmonic. Plu- 
tarch]: says that Aristoxenus (in a book not now extant) 
informs us that Olympus was the inventor of an enhar- 
monic, but of a kind consisting of a scale in which certain 
notes, the "lichani" or " indicatrices," were omitted, and 
that the airs of Olympus were so simple and beautiful, 
that there was nothing like them. 



i 



±± 



I 



.03 



up e'so^oSL 

This Scale would approximate to the Scotch, or rather 
to that given as Chinese by Dr. Russell. § 

But there is nothing repugnant in this, to the division 
of the intermediate half-note between this saltus ; and, as 

lodiBi '£0 lOfBai anoJ >8 lo is^'usup adi oi dosoiqqfl £ta 
* " Notices et Extraits des MSS./' torn. xvi. 

t ti M6moire de la Socigte Boyale de Lille." 

| ns£i MouffiKvs. § Burney, vol. i. 



APPENDIX. 



321 



here, it is the division of the half-note interval with which 
we have to do ; 



the discussion as to the variety or difference introduced by 
Olympus— (as to whether he made use of this design or 
not) — is not of any importance to our subject, our object 
being merely to show that the smaller interval, called a 
quarter tone, has its representative in modern times. 

Suffice it to say, that many Chinese airs, of which I 
have two, show the diesic modulation and the saltus 
combined ; but the majority of the New Zealand airs 
which I have heard are softer and more " ligate" and 
have a great predominance of the diesic element. 

It may not be amiss to define in what sense we wish 
''diesis" to be understood, for sometimes, by modern, 
writers especially, it is used for the simple minor half-tone of 

24 15 

-- in contradistinction to the major of — . In Dr. Smith's 

25 lb 

Harmonics it is the limma of equal temperament. Some- 
times the moderns use the term for the double sharp. 
It was Eameau's diese major ; Henfling's Harmonia ; 
Boyce's quarter-note; the Earl of Stamford's tierce wolf; 
observed in the tuning of an organ. Dr. Maxwell makes 

•2025 . . _. . - 32768 . M . 

— — - the mai. diesis, and the mm. r> ut the sense m 

2048 J 32805 

which I shall use it is that of the ancient quarter-tone, 
being an approach to the quarter of a tone major, or rather 
243 

the division of the limma -^-^ into two unequal parts; this 

is called the Aristoxenian diesis quadrantalis ; which is re- 

P 3 



3-22 



APPENDIX. 



presented nearly by 120 being the lowest note; then 
116-60: 113-39. 

I shall not trouble the reader with chronological or 
scholastic differences ; the diesis of Archytas being given by 
Vincent as 115-f : 11% that of Eratosthenes as 117 : 114, 
for keen indeed must be the ear that could discern be- 

15 $i 

tween — and — (except in harmony) ; much more difficult 
still would it be to discover a difference between 116-60 : 

If any wish to examine this matter more closely, they 
can consult the Treatises on Harmonics. Mr. Vincent has 
calculated these differences by logarithms to the 60 root 
of 2. 

My point is, to prove that the ancients did possess and 
practise a modulation which contained much less intervals 
than ours, and that such, or an approach to such, modula- 
tion (though probably but imperfect) is still retained 
among some people, and that the principles on which the 
Greeks founded their enharmonic genus, still survive in 
natural song, though I will not be bold enough to assert 
that sometimes these songs may not change into one of 
the chromatic x&tfo which, for want of practice, I might 
not be able to decide. One thing, however, is certain, that, 
as Aristoxenus tells us, no perfect ear could modulate 
more than two dieses at a time (and then there was a 
" saltus" or interval of two tones), and as the New Zea- 
land songs frequently exhibit more than two close intervals 
together, it is more than probable that many of these 
songs are a chromatic, represented by 120, 114, 108, or 
120, 112 J, 108 ; but it will not be worth while for the pre- 
sent purpose to discuss this nicety, as all we want is a 
practical approximation. 



APPENDIX. 



323 



In proof that a system of modulation like the above 
still survives, I shall produce, as nearly as my ear could 
discern, the modulation of some of the New Zealand 
melodies ; and shall show a still nearer approach to the 
system of the real Greek enharmonic, in a Chinese air 
which I heard and noted. 

A few remarks on the system itself, the intervals, and 
the notation. 

SYSTEM. 

First, that an enharmonic modulation might exist is 
admitted by many modern writers. Mr. Donkin, for in- 
stance, author of the able article on Ancient Music in 
Dr. W. Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Koman Anti- 
quities," observes (under the title of " Music") of the differ- 
ent genera less frequently named,* " that it would be 
wrong to conclude hastily that the others would be impos- 
sible in practice, or necessarily unpleasing ;" and of the en- 
harmonic he says, "but it is impossible to form a judgment 
of its merits without a much greater knowledge of the 
rules of composition than seems now attainable." 

Mr. Lay Tradescant having shown the differences of 
interval of the Chinese instruments from the intervals 
generally in use in Europe, adds — " It will therefore 
very readily appear from the respective rules, that the 
character of the music, or, if you please, the mood (he 
should have said " genus "), must be very different from 
our own, and that none of our instruments (he should 
have said keyed or bored) are capable of doing jus- 
tice to any air that is played on the kin" (or scholar's 
lute). He subjoins : " In my travels I sometimes wrote 
clown the airs that I had heard among the natives, but 
though I took much pains to learn them accurately, I 

* As the soft diatonic,, the hemiolion chromatic, the soft chro- 
matic. 



324 



APPENDIX. 



always found they had lost something of their peculiarity 
when played upon the violin. 

f The reason of this defect seems to have been that the 
intervals of the Indian music did not agree with those of 
Europe."* 

Mi\ Tradescant might have added, that there will 
always be some difference iti an air played on the guitar 
and on the violin, though the intervals used are esteemed 
the same; and, again, perhaps the learned traveller did 
not take care to divide the scale of his violin mathemati- 
cally, like that of the kin, before he tried the effect; he 
might also not have noted the right interval. He con- 
cludes : " There is, however, a connection between the Chi- 
nese and old Scotch music, so that when any highly-ad- 
mired airs of Scotland happen to fall within the compass 
of the kin, they seem at home when played upon this in- 
strument." 

Mr. Lane says the " canoon" of the Arabians had twenty- 
four notes. Dr. Russell to Burney says that the Arab scale 
of twenty-four notes was equal to one octave. But Mr. 
Lane adds, that " the most remarkable peculiarity in the 
Arab system of music is the division of tones into thirds." 
Hence, from the system of thirds of tones, I have heard the 
Egyptian musicians urge against the European systems of 
music that they are deficient in the number of sounds. 

The same remark was made to me by Selim Agar, a 
Nubian, when singing some Amharic songs: " Your instru- 
ment" (piano), said he, "is very much out of tune, and 
jumps very much." 

Mr. Lane adds : " These small and delicate gradations of 
sound give a peculiar softness to the performances of the 
Arab musicians, which are generally of a plaintive cha- 



* Lay Tradescant's " Chinese as they Are." 



APPENDIX. 



325 



racter; but they are difficult to discriminate with exact- 
ness, and therefore seldom observed in the vocal and 
instrumental music of those persons who have not made a 
regular study of the art." 

Had Mr. Lane been describing the character and diffi- 
culties of the ancient Greek enharmonic or chromatic, he 
could not have used other terms; they are almost the 
words of Aristoxenus, Vitruvius, Plutarch, and other an- 
cient writers on these genera; and yet, he adds, " he took 
great delight in the more refined kind of music," and 
found " the more he became habituated to the style the 
more he was pleased with it." He continues :" He was 
perfectly charmed with the performance of some female 
singers, and that the natives are so fascinated as to lavish 
considerable sums on them." 

Precisely so the Greeks of old. 

INTERVALS. 

We must not suppose that the Greek enharmonic was a 
consecutive gamut of quarter-tones — no ; we are told dis- 
tinctly by all authors (except, perhaps, Salinas), that there 
was a quarter-tone, then another quarter-tone, then a 
great interval completing the fourth ; or reversely, a great 
interval of two major tones, or about our third major, the 
quarter-tone, another quarter-tone, thus completing the 
fourth. 

So with these nations, and especially in the Chinese 
airs I have heard, there is either the two quarter-tones, 
then an interval of about a third ; or, the interval of the 
third, and then the two dieses or quarter-tones, or it is a 
mixed genus, and adds a tone or half-tone at either 
extreme. 

I here beg to state that, though wuth great care and the 
assistance of a graduated monochord, and an instrument 



326 



APPENDIX. 



divided like the intervals of the Chinese kin, 1 have endea- 
voured to give an idea of those airs of New Zealand which 
I heard, yet so difficult is it to discover the exact interval, 
that I will not vouch for the mathematical exactness : nei- 
ther will I pledge myself not to have written a chromatic 
for an enharmonic interval, or vice versa. 

I must also, in justice to myself, add, that the singer 
did not always repeat the musical phrase with precisely 
the same modulation, though, without a very severe test, 
this would not have been discernible, nor then to many 
ears ; the general effect being to an European ear very mo- 
notonous. 

But I may say that, when I sang them from my notation, 
they were recognised and approved of by competent judges ; 
and that the New Zealancler himself said, " he should soon 
make a singer of me." 

I may also add that I have studied the subject for more 
than twenty years, and have read something out of almost 
every book of note that has been written on it ; but yet I 
only offer these airs as an approximation, and if any one 
shall be found who may do more justice to them, I shall be 
delighted to hear of the result. 

,0jtfH6lijjJ£ dSOfll 9iU ffQSOXlO QVBS1. illW 
NOTATION. 

The notation that I have adopted is, for the enharmonic 
diesis, the St. Andrews cross or saltier x, quarter tone or 

half sharp; the usual % for the sharp; and ft for three- 
quarter sharp. In like manner, the 'fc for quarter tone 
or half flat ; b for the flat ; and (or I might have said £) 
for the three-quarter flat. 

In the Arab ternal division I should use — one-third 
sharp, /ft ; two-third sharp, ft/ ; one-third flat, 4? ; two- 
third flat, b/ . 

In my notation, also, it must be observed, that a sign 



APPENDIX, 



327 



8 or b never conveys its influence beyond the note to which 
it is attached : thus 











I 3 






— j ! 






Ql 





would read E half-flat, E natural, E half-sharp, E natural; 
and is a delicate expression of the chromatic 







"a* «»i 

















— — y-w 

or of the diatonic 










I now give the airs as best I can. 

One word as to time. Though I have timed the airs I 
have given, I am free to confess there was neither metre 
nor rhythm of any marked character discernible in them ; 
and even in the divisions of the lines or verses, the singer 
seemed to stop indifferently now at one, now at another 
word. I have, however, followed in my divisions those given 
in the book, taking it for granted that the learned author, 
who has given himself so much pains about the matter, 
will have chosen the most authentic. 

James A. Davjes,* 
Formerly of Trin. Coll. Camb. 
Late Private Sec. to H.R.H. Prince Leopold, 
Count of Syracuse, Naples. 

17, Great Ormond Street, Queen Square, 
September, 1854. 

* Author of the Papers on the Rhythm of the Ancient Greek 
Orators, of the Psalms, Selah, the Evil Eye, read before the Royal 
Society of Literature ; and of Papers on Accent and Quantity, dis- 
covering their true and real difference, from authentic sources. See 
" English Journal of Education," February, March, April, June, 
July, and August; G. Bell, 186, Fleet Street. 



328 



APPENDIX. 



Mr. McGregor gives the following specimens of Arabian 
Music. — See his "Eastern Music." 



Mo - ha- med 
Which I represent thus : — 



afczt: 



fee 



Al - lah. 

W I" • 

Hill o a 

i t 

% i 




or thus, perhaps clearer: 



5. e 



The run at the end is also met with in the New Zealand 
songs. The cadence is mixed, i. e. enharmonic and dia- 
tonic. 

The Chinese Air sung under my window in London: — 



» 7 I 

■ i 



APPENDIX. 



329 




330 



APPENDIX. 



J a S 



Q ■ 

— IT ^ 



9 



» 5 



if 



'ttA 



i A 



c3 



TT4 E 



o3 



\ c3 

) fcD 

nrr© 7 S 
la 



■t i ■ 
'3 



o 

—4 j*j 



Li 



++■!• 



n 

I 



2 >» 



g I 

,2 & 

."2 H 

o 

CO rj 

O 00 



O c3 
> 3 

o3 a* 



APPENDIX. 



331 




APPENDIX. 



& 03 

• CD 



» 5 



I I I I 



fii i 

4* W 



» EH 



4i; 



4 



"TT» f3 



T 



-io 
is o 



T 4? 



Si *a 



APPENDIX. 



333 



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o 



erf 

o 
< 

^ 

o 

m 
Q 
U 



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edit 



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03 



Iff u 



03 



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LONDON : 

PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, 

ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET. 



